Spectacular immersive aerial journey

Details: Written by ISP Integration Magazine; Category: Case Studies; Published: August 27, 2024

An aerial journey over the Windy City, highlighting its iconic landmarks. A 61-seat theater crafted by various audiovisual specialists.

Since its grand opening in March 2024, Flyover in Chicago by Pursuit at Navy Pier has captivated thousands with an impressive immersive experience.

Kraftwerk Living Technologies (KLT), renowned for their expertise in flight attraction technology, designed and supplied an advanced audiovisual (AV) setup including projection, control, and audio, further enhanced by the state-of-the-art spatial audio system IOSONO, supplied and supported by ENCIRCLED.

ENCIRCLED has provided IOSONO systems not only for Flyover in Chicago but also for an upgraded system in Vancouver, Canada.

"ENCIRCLED is proud to offer one of the most flexible immersive rendering solutions with excellent integration features. The company’s expertise was crucial at several stages of the project, from working with KLT's audio system designer Philipp Hartl, immersive sound designer Tim Archer of Masters Digital, and the Flyover team in planning the speaker setup, to assisting KLT again with the final sound calibration, as well as developing the object-based content production workflow to be prepared for the latest immersive audio creation tools or multiple channel-based formats," said Jan Langhammer, Co-Managing Director of ENCIRCLED.

Eric Sambell, Global Director of Construction and Entertainment Technology, added: "We wanted a straightforward system that could be used in our attractions, one that could provide an impressive audio experience for our guests and a consistent workflow for our content and technical teams.”

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The Flyover team was supported by key suppliers to launch their attraction in Chicago. This includes Dave Revel of TechMD as project consultant, Kraftwerk Living Technologies as AV system integrator, and Tim Archer of Masters Digital as sound designer and mixer.

How does immersive audio really work in a flight attraction?

At Flyover in Chicago, KLT’s meticulous multichannel speaker design ensures that passengers receive a personalized soundscape and a unique experience. The system features 34 JBL AM7215 speakers positioned behind and to the sides of the 435 m² perforated Endurescreens screen, along with 4 JBL ASB7128 2x18” subwoofers stacked on the floor, all driven by Crown DCiDA series Dante-enabled amplifiers. Additionally, there are speakers integrated into the seats, driven by high-density multichannel amplifiers from Innosonix, and the advanced ENCIRCLED IOSONO spatial audio processor, which handles calibration, content playback, and live input rendering.

"ENCIRCLED played a key role in planning the speaker layout, selecting appropriate speaker types, configuring the software on the spatial audio processor, and performing acoustic calibration after the initial speaker tuning by KLT," said Kevin Murphy, Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Kraftwerk Living Technologies. "ENCIRCLED optimized the directional orientation of the speakers, assisted with fine-tuning the system to meet the ENCIRCLED processor’s requirements and workflow adjustments, and supported the content production process for future content adaptation or new films to the IOSONO object-based format."

The spatial audio system design allows for precise sound localization both horizontally and vertically, enhancing the visual content displayed on the giant screen. "Unlike traditional immersive audio formats, which often have limited possibilities in vertically panning audio sources, the multi-layer rendering approach of the IOSONO system uses multiple speaker clusters to achieve sound positioning across the screen," said Murphy.

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The high-resolution speakers in the middle layer allow for precise sound localization through Wave Field Synthesis, creating stable point-source objects on the screen and ensuring consistent sound perception from all seats. A significant challenge was reproducing existing content, which ENCIRCLED overcame using the IOSONO Spatial Audio Workstation. This tool treats multichannel content as a virtual speaker setup within the newly built dome, allowing for precise matching of each channel’s position with the existing speakers used in other flight attractions. Newly produced content benefits from an object-based workflow, where individual sounds are stored with 3D position metadata, enabling the same content file to be rendered in different speaker setups, ensuring superior quality and easy content transfer.

"ENCIRCLED is extremely proud to be part of this project and grateful for the trust placed in us to support the speaker setup design for the main show. With over 10 previous flight attraction installations worldwide, we brought valuable knowledge and confidently contributed to the acoustic design of this next-generation flight attraction system," added Max Röhrbein, Co-Managing Director of ENCIRCLED.

The integration of ENCIRCLED’s IOSONO spatial audio system not only enhances the immersive experience but also sets a new standard for audio quality and versatility in flight attractions, providing visitors with a unique, engaging, and memorable experience.