Community D Series surface mount loudspeakers provide the soundscape for the National Museum of Singapore’s ‘Story of the Forest’ digital art installation, which brings to life the country’s social and cultural history in an immersive experience for visitors.
The exhibit is the product of a collaboration with Japanese digital art collective teamLab, with Singapore-based Broadcast Professional Pte chosen for system integration, content delivery and project management.
The Glass Rotunda’s 15m-high drum ceiling and 170m passageway have been converted into a large-scale digital art installation, providing a 360° audio and video experience. Visitors to the Glass Rotunda walk across a sky bridge to be greeted by the top end of the dome and enter the 170m-spiral passageway that leads them to the Lower Rotunda. The top of the structure projects the infinitely expanding universe, where animated flowers of the region bloom and change over time as guests walk through it. The dome features 17 projectors in the 15m-high by 12m-wide space.
Key to the experience is the interactivity that is interspersed with the images projected. The main interaction starts once visitors enter the spiral passageway from the sky bridge. Sensors that trigger the images to change have been placed strategically within the passageway. Visitors can also download a custom designed app to their smart devices. A feature that Broadcast Professional and teamLab have created in the app allows visitors to point their smart device cameras at the projected images to track any selected character and get further information about them.
Alongside the projectors, the spiral passageway also features Community loudspeakers, which create the appropriate audio soundscape that complements the images projected. Audio has also been used to create additional interactivity. Broadcast Professional has integrated a feature whereby a high frequency signal can be captured by a visitor’s smartphone microphone, enabling them to pinpoint their location within the various zones of the 170m wide projection.
“A total of 42 projectors have been installed along the spiral passageway with Community DS5 loudspeakers playing a critical role in the experience,” said John Paul Tan, Broadcast Professional’s sales manager. “The Community D SERIES surface mount loudspeakers are low profile, aesthetically modern and discreet, with dynamic sound quality and excellent intelligibility. With space being a premium, these loudspeakers were the ideal solution for this installation as they fit seamlessly into the environment and provide outstanding sound quality.”
“This has been a very interesting project for us. It was a truly collaborative effort, working with the Museum and teamLab to create this very large interactive digital canvas. The content and the technology had to work hand-in-hand to provide a memorable visitor experience and we are pleased to have been involved in this one-of-a-kind project,” concluded John Paul Tan.
