ASHEVILLE, NC 9.2.21—500 years after he lived, Leonardo Da Vinci’s greatest art and inventions are being presented at the Tsawwassen Mills Shopping mall just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia in a multi-sensory 360º immersive journey with more than 10 replicas of his incredible machines as well as visual experiences in virtual reality.
The show is called “The Da Vinci Experience & his Incredible Machines” by Sensea Immersive. A mix of his art, technology A truly immersive experience thanks to the virtual reality technology which will transport you to Da Vinci’s workshop featuring his art, music, 10+ machines, and more.
Originating in Florence, produced by Italy’s Crossmedia Group, the exhibition has been seen by over 3 million people worldwide and is presented exclusively in Canada by Sensea Immersive of Vancouver, BC for the enjoyment of lovers of the Renaissance period. The audio coverage is provided by Sapphire Sound and includes a d&b xS-Series installation loudspeaker system setup in the immersive area providing balanced audio coverage of the background music for the stunning visuals that are presented in 360 degrees.
“This is a unique, small project,” states Mick Kelly, VP of Sensea Immersive Canada. “With the exhibition being presented in the middle of a shopping mall and having 22 ft. ceilings, the project had to maintain audio impact and quality without affecting the other tenants of the mall. We brought in BKL Consultants Ltd. (Burnaby, BC) to do an acoustical review of our facility prior to installation of the sound equipment to give us guidance on techniques we could use to mitigate sound transference. I will say that the measures we took as well as the excellent work by Steve Klassen of Sapphire Sound and d&b’s great products have meant zero issues.”
“There are 3 rows of 4x 5S speakers suspended from the ceiling joists in the immersive room,” states Steve Klassen, Sapphire Sound. “These are routed in a Left/Right/Left configuration which gives some sonic stereo imaging as guests walk through the experience. The flexibility of the M8 mounting holes on the 5S speakers allowed our team to suspend them using Uni-strut and beam clamps to the open Wilson trusses. The audio design allowed for excellent audio coverage throughout the room without needing to hang obtrusive pendant speakers further into the room. The goal was for us to have balanced audio coverage for the immersive room from a very small speaker. We used ArrayCalc to confirm design principals, coverage, and placement.
We needed to keep the speakers as tight to the ceiling as possible to ensure that they would not be interfering with the 360-degree projected images. The system configuration includes 12 x 5S loudspeakers and 2 x Bi8-SUBs on a single 10D amplifier. The small footprint and sonic characteristics of the 5S made it the obvious choice for this project.”
With their unobtrusive cabinet design the xS-Series loudspeakers are ideally positioned within a variety of venues seeking high quality sound and intelligibility including restaurants, bars, lounges, conference and meeting facilities, assembly halls, lecture theatres as well as clubs, houses of worship or multipurpose venues. For added flexibility, a variety of sizes, output power, dispersion patterns, custom colors and weather resistant options are available to satisfy the exact demands of an installation, and the complementary Bi8-SUB delivers high sound pressure levels while maintaining a low profile and various mounting options .
“We work a lot with d&b so were familiar with what we were getting into,” says Klassen. “We were thankful that d&b was able to fulfill the project in short order. Currently most of the AV world seems to be on backorder due to global chip shortages and shipping delays. d&b worked alongside our team to make sure the product was available when we needed it.”
For more information on The Da Vinci Experience, visit https://sensea.show/canada.
For more information on Sapphire Sound, visit https://www.sapphiresound.ca.
For more information on d&b audiotechnik, visit https://www.dbaudio.com.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jelly Marketing/Crossmedia Canada.
