Manhattan, New York —
Imagine a spacious, sunlit park full of trees and grass, greenery and people.
It’s not hard to picture—except this park will be completely undergound.
“Imagining the LowLine: A First Glimpse of a Future Underground” is a New York
exhibit that lets people experience the environment of LowLine, an underground
park proposed for the site of the former Williamsburg Trolley Terminal located
below Delancey Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Along with the
lighting, greenery and architecture, the goal was to emulate the sonic
environment people would experience above ground. To accomplish this, Alban
Bassuet, venue and acoustic consultant at Arup envisioned, designed and
installed a 3D sound system comprised of 16 wall-mounted
JBL CBT50LA-1 column speakers and eight Control 25AV compact indoor/outdoor
speakers throughout the space, all powered by three Crown ComTech DriveCore
CT8150 amplifiers. Dash 7 Design, a creative design and fabricator firm in New
York, helped with constructing the installation.
Anne Guthrie from
ARUP composed the soundscape for the installation, which features music,
trains, birds and children playing and other sounds, all filtered, processed
and manipulated by Guthrie. The multichannel soundtrack was processed, recorded
and played back using proprietary programs written for Max-MSP using
Ambisonics, delivering a 3-dimensional sound field.
“We chose the JBL
CBT50LA-1 loudspeakers for a number of reasons,” noted Bassuet. “The exhibit
space, which measures about 200’ long, 60’ wide and 18-foot high ceilings has a
lot of natural reverberation. However, in order to successfully use Ambisonics,
the sound from the speakers has to be focused and the speakers have to be
accurately aimed. The CBT50LA-1 has a precise coverage pattern, which kept
unwanted reverb to a minimum and the sound field seamless.”
“In addition, the
CBT50LA-1’s’ wall-mounting angle bracket proved to be a very useful feature.
The bracket enabled us to precisely aim the speakers and get the Ambisonics to
work. The system really immerses you in the sonic environment and the mood
created by the composer.”
The exhibit, which
ran from September 15–27, is located at the Essex Street Warehouse on the
corner of Essex and Broome streets in Manhattan. Striking in design with
sweeping, organically curved ceiling sections, the exhibit has a remote
skylight system, inviting seating areas—and an abundance of trees, grass and
plants.
On the kid’s day, an
iPad and wiimote interface designed by Terence Caulkins and Joseph Digerness
from ARUP were given to kids from different visiting schools to move sound in
3D across the entire system, which was very popular and a successful way to
engage with the kids and raise their awareness of sound and space.
“The ‘Imagining the
LowLine’ exhibit is a major part of helping to popularize the idea of LowLine,”
said Bassuet, who noted that a feasibility study would be submitted to New
York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (owners of the Williamsburg Trolley
Terminal) in January 2013. “LowLine underground is not only a great public
gathering space, but with its columns, walls and ceiling it also offers the
possibility to build an audio-visual infra-structure which could support a
number of diverse installations and events. It’ll be a wonderful addition to
one of New York’s most culturally diverse neighborhoods.”
For additional
details, please visit www.thelowline.org.
HARMAN
(www.harman.com)
designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment
solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by
15 leading brands, including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon and
Mark Levinson. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple
generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where
they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped
with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about
13,400 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $4.4
billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012.
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