Costing US$15m, Virginia Tech’s Cube is the world’s first big data exploration facility – a full-scale theatre and high-tech laboratory that uses motion capture and visual environment technologies, specialised acoustics, real-time audiovisual rendering to allow scientists to model and explore data in sonified, virtual form.
The facility is located in the Moss Arts Center and shared by the Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology (ICAT) and the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech, and is based around a multichannel Dante network supporting audio technologies from JBL Professional and BSS Audio. Four storeys tall (50-ft wide x 40-ft long x 32-ft high), the Cube is an adaptable space for research and experimentation in big data, immersive environments, intimate performances, audio and visual installations, and experiential investigations. The environment can also be used by composers and other artists to explore the creative discipline of spatial sound.
The acoustics, audiovisual and 3D audio systems were conceived and designed by Arup.
According to Benjamin Knapp, Ph.D, director of ICAT, the Cube was initially conceived as a performance space and then reimagined as an incredibly immersive environment, where groups can explore virtual worlds and data of any kind: ‘Certainly unique to the Cube is the combination of Ambisonic and wave field synthesis (WFS) and immersive visual environments, but this is one of the few environments where the virtual experience can be a shared experience,’ he says. ‘I am very excited by the array of immersive audio, immersive video projects that we have already lined up for this space.’
‘Virginia Tech has a very progressive, ambitious approach to technology, research and futurism,’ says Arup Acoustic & Audiovisual Consultant, Terence Caulkins. ‘We were inspired to develop this project to pioneer new capabilities, such as multi-user collaborative interaction with spatial audio. This space is unique in its raw number of audio channels and also the height of the space, allowing scientists to do more cross-discipline research and experience phenomena quickly from different perspectives. Our challenge was to make the space extremely quiet and neutral, so we could put the footprint of another acoustical space on top of it and then to place a layer of 3D audio on top of that.’
The Cube features an array of technologies, including virtual and augmented reality (head-mounted display and tablet interaction interface); wave field synthesis and highly directional sound interaction; synchronised data capture, including information retrieval motion capture; audio/video, physiological and interaction signals; and real-time audiovisual rendering.
The Cube’s highly adaptable space required an audio distribution solution with extensive reach and a highly flexible architecture to ensure creative freedom across a multitude of projects. ‘The Cube is unusual because it’s built like a traditional black box theatre, but often used for heavy-duty scientific and next-generation research that’s collaborative in nature,’ says Tanner Upthegrove, the media engineer at the institute. ‘We needed a robust infrastructure to support everything we set out to accomplish in this facility. We started by running Gigabit Ethernet across the facility, with fibre-optic analogue audio and digital video connections throughout. It quickly became clear that Dante would allow us to leverage our planned network without headaches, while being the most cost-effective and technologically sound means of achieving our vision for immersive 3D audio experiences.’
Arup and Upthegrove’s colleague and audio supervisor for Virginia Tech’s Center for the Arts, Rob Gainer, suggested that Dante would cost-efficiently address the requirement for reliable networking across the large spatial audio installation. Following evaluations of various networking technologies, the team confirmed that Dante would offer faculty, students, and visiting artists and researchers the freedom to work at any position in The Cube.
‘Dante is agnostic for the user, so most contributors can use the network with either network-enabled hardware or the Dante Virtual Sound Card on a computer,’ says Upthegrove. ‘That’s very important here, since we aren’t always aware who will come into the facility and plug into the system.
The sound system itself comprises Yamaha XMV 8280-D amplifiers, which can drive eight speakers from a single Dante connection, along with 124 JBL SCS 8 spatially-cued surround loudspeakers around the walls and ceiling of the Cube in various resolutions. At the backbone of the routing system are three BSS Blu 806 networked signal processors with Dante and Blu Link connectivity.
‘Spatial sound is a compelling frontier for audio innovation and is likely to positively impact how and what we listen to in the car, the home and in large venues,’ says Paul Chavez, Harman Professional Director of Systems Applications. ‘The Cube is among the elite facilities for exploration and learning, and we are extremely pleased to be involved.’
