Audio specialist tube uk helped design the sound – including audio technology from JBL, d&b and QLab – for the ‘Where to Begin‘ opening event of the 2024 Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), which ran in the Scottish capital from 2-25 August. Drawing inspiration from Scottish heritage, the audience entered an immersive environment filled with fire, performers and references to whisky.
The ticketed event ran over three evenings and was enjoyed by 3,000 people each night. The sound installation from tube uk was developed in collaboration with creative agency Pinwheel under the artistic direction of Katy Fuller and composer Roma Yagnik.
Roma created the music for an immersive pre-show experience followed by a large projection spectacular, with video content produced by Yeast Culture. The video was mapped and beamed by Graymatter Video onto the north façade of the George Heriot School, which was founded in 1628 and is overlooked by Edinburgh Castle.
The sonic requirements of both pre-show areas were identical. tube supplied 40 x JBL Control 1 speakers for each one – 80 in total – configured as an immersive multichannel audio field to deliver the soundscape everywhere around the spaces.
The speakers were positioned around the peripheries of the east and west lawns at ground level. The requirement was to produce an even and realistic sound for guests as they moved around a route designated by trackway and rope-and-post pathways.
The source files were stored on a Mac Mini running QLab, using 80 outputs for the 40 speakers per side. The QLab machine ran 146 concurrent cues in total, creating random movement in the audio content as it ran.
A huge cabling infrastructure was necessary to facilitate the pre-show installations and ensure that every speaker was precisely in the right position to deal with all the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the space.
Meanwhile, the main show was also run via QLab on 2 x Mac Studios for full redundancy. A data connection between the pre-show and main show sites sent timecode and OSC signals between the two systems, so audio for the whole site was triggered from the one source.
The projection show sound system comprised main left and right arrays made up of d&b KSL, ground stacked, sitting on Steeldeck risers, a set up chosen for the tightest footprint and offering maximum stability in case of wind. This also ensured the best sound clarity.
The physical set up needed to be very neat as the arrays were partly protruding into the audience in line with the building structure, made up with 5 x KSL tops and 3 x KSL SUBS per side.
Two middle stacks flanked the school’s central door, and were rigged with d&b Y-Series speakers, 6 tops and 2 subs a side, and the system was completed with four Y7P front fills strapped to the top of an architectural balustrade in front of the building, equidistantly spaced out over the 60-metre width of the projection canvas.
Behind the audience were 6 rear points for FX speakers – flown d&b Y7Ps – one speaker per point at 3.5m high – above head height – on upright poles secured in place via tube’s patented concrete ballasted base-boxes. The whole system was running through 10 x d&b D80 amplifiers receiving their signals via Dante and d&b DS10 interfaces.
Katy Fuller, artistic director, said: “The results were fantastic – we were even able to sonically hold our own against the Tattoo which was running simultaneously on a neighbouring site.”
The show was divided into two acts. The first was an interactive performance and pre-show area entered by guests who mingled for an hour getting in the mood for the second act which was the projection show.
The audience entered the site from the south direction and could then choose to stand either on the left or right (east or west) lawns of the school, both featuring an identical preshow set up. They were invited to take part in rituals including donating a piece of coal to feed the fires and raising a toast to the angel’s share – the whisky that evaporates during the distilling process.
