Object based audio is put to full use for Mary Poppins relaunch at Sydney Lyric Theatre.

We don’t often see genuine quantum shifts in how sound reinforcement and PA systems are designed and applied to do the job they do. However, we’re seeing something now. The d&b Soundscape system has broken the mould to offer something innovative and very interesting in terms of touring sound, in particular when it comes to theatrical productions. One of the first full-blown, dedicated d&b Soundscape systems in Australia comes courtesy of Sir Cameron Mackintosh and the return of ‘Mary Poppins’ to Sydney Lyric Theatre. The relaunch promises a new and exciting version of the musical, and a big part of that is the d&b Soundscape system driving the audio experience.

In some ways, the ‘magic’ of theatre has been somewhat compromised in recent years by the in-your-face technology employed to produce things on a large scale. That’s about to change. The best way to describe the Soundscape experience is that the venue, from the listener’s perspective, becomes a complete soundscape that envelopes the audience while removing any perception of an audio point source. Awareness of the PA system kind of disappears, leaving just the show. You might immediately make comparisons to Dolby Surround, and that doesn’t quite fit. Dolby Surround programming often aims for effect, producing and ‘placing’ specific sounds in and around the audience to maximise impact; Soundscape can do that as well, but that’s not the primary objective.

Instead, the idea is to accurately place every sound involved in the mix spatially according to the sound source’s position on stage (or off it), meaning left and right and depth, and including any movement — for every seat in the house. All without the perception you’re hearing a specific speaker cluster, or any speakers for that matter. The audience is immersed within the soundscape rather than being confronted by it. System Designer, Paul Gatehouse puts it simply, “What you see is what you hear.”

There are three main components to the Soundscape formula. First is the physical PA and the speaker elements in place; these are standard d&b products not units specific to Soundscape. Instead of the now-standard LRC cluster positioning, with perhaps repeat clusters towards the rear of the auditorium, a much more complex array of individual speakers is installed above and below the proscenium arch, then also throughout the auditorium, to create a complete 360 degree coverage of the venue. It creates the field of sound crucial to the Soundscape concept rather than the more traditional idea of L / R arrays providing some control and near equal SPL to all corners of the room. So yes, there is a bit of rigging involved, but they are mostly individual elements and it’s not so daunting as you might think.

Next comes the true ‘brains’ behind the Soundscape concept, the d&b DS100 processor engine with its En-Scene and En-Space components. Through the DS100, the design of the PA and the delivery of any sound is what’s called ‘object-based’. That’s not a usual term for most engineers; think of it this way, anything included in the audio mix can be assigned as an ‘object’. So, a solo vocalist, a chorus ensemble, the band’s drummer, the entire orchestra… anything at all via a single channel or a buss group can be designated as an object. Each DS100 module can handle sixty-four separate objects.

It’s the projected position and movement of these objects that the DS100 handles, constantly adjusting the distribution of the audio across the entire array of speakers to mimic a real life perception of how each audience member should hear that ‘object’. For example, a solo actor designated as an object can move from upstage left to downstage right, and processed by the DS100, that mix signal to the whole speaker array is compensated on the fly to accurately reflect the actor’s position. Essentially, it’s panning from left to right taken to the nth degree on an X-Y axis and delivered into the sound field. The tracking can be manual — that’ll keep you busy — pre-programmed, or in the case of Mary Poppins, it’s automated using TiMax Tracker D4 sensors worn by the cast and networked into the DS100.

It’s worth bearing in mind that not all the objects will be moving. Some, like the orchestra, will be static after perhaps the various object sections of the band (wind, brass, and so on) are placed effectively in the sound field, so it’s not like you might be herding sixty-four cats around the stage environment (then again … ah, ‘Cats’). It raises the question of whether the object mapping might be a feature that could perhaps become over-complicated in the hands of some, let’s say, ambitious directors. “No, not at all,” says Gatehouse.