Power Plant Living Technologies (KLT), a leading AV system integratordesigned and delivered a state-of-the-art audiovisual (AV) setup for Pursuit’s newly opened Chicago Flyover at Navy Pier. The setup included Projection, control and audio, further enhanced by the state-of-the-art IOSONO spatial audio system supplied and supported by ENCIRCLED.
Since its grand opening in March 2024, Flyover in Chicago has captivated thousands of people with an immersive experience that culminates in a journey over the Windy City, highlighting its major landmarks. Flyover built this 61-seat theater, installed a Brogent Driving system, ad hired additional experts for the audio-visual components.
Immersive audio
In addition to Flyover in Chicago, ENCIRCLED has supplied IOSONO systems for a modernized system in Vancouver, Canada.
“ENCIRCLED is proud to offer one of the most flexible immersive rendering solutions with excellent integration capabilities,” says Jan LanghammerCo-CEO at ENCIRCLED.
“The company’s expertise was crucial at various stages of the project, from working with KLT’s audio system designer Philipp Hartlimmersive sound designer Tim Archer from Masters Digital and the Flyover team in planning the speaker setup, again helping KLT with the final fine-tuning of the sound calibration and developing the object-based content production workflow to be ready for the latest immersive audio creation tools or the multitude of channel-based formats.”
Eric SambellGlobal Director of Construction and Entertainment Technology at Pursuit, adds: “We wanted a simple system that could be deployed across all of our attractions, providing our guests with a stunning audio experience and our content and engineering teams with a consistent workflow.”
To open their Chicago attraction, the Flyover team enlisted the help of a number of reputable vendors, including Tim Archer of Masters Digital, who served as sound designer and mixer, Dave Revel of TechMD, who served as project consultant, and Kraftwerk Living Technologies, who served as AV systems integrator.
A tailor-made soundscape
KLT’s comprehensive multi-channel speaker system in Chicago’s flyover ensures passengers receive a tailored soundscape and experience. The system includes four 2×18″ JBL ASB7128 subwoofers stacked on the floor and 34 JBL AM7215 speakers placed behind and on the sides of the 435 square meter perforated screen. EndurescreensAll speakers are powered by Dante-enabled Crown DCiDA series amplifiers.
The advanced ENCIRCLED IOSONO spatial audio processor is controlled by the internal IOSONO software, which controls calibration, content playback and live input playback, and the integrated seat speakers are powered by Innosonix multi-channel high-density amplifiers.
“ENCIRCLED played a crucial role in planning the loudspeaker layout, selecting appropriate loudspeaker types, configuring the software on the spatial audio processor and performing an acoustic calibration after the initial loudspeaker tuning by KLT,” says Kevin MurphySenior VP of Sales and Business Development at Kraftwerk Living Technologies.
“ENCIRCLED optimized the orientation of the speakers, helped fine-tune the system to meet the requirements of the ENCIRCLED processor and workflow optimization, and supported the content production process for future adaptation of content or new films to IOSONO’s object-based format.”
The spatial audio system’s design enables precise horizontal and vertical localization of sound, enhancing the content displayed on screen. “Unlike traditional immersive audio formats, which often offer limited options for vertical panning of audio sources, the IOSONO rendering system’s unique multi-layered approach utilizes multiple speaker groups to achieve sound positioning across the screen,” adds Murphy.
See also: FlyOver in Las Vegas: Next-level flight theater experiences
A well thought-out solution
Using wave field synthesis, the high-resolution mid-level speakers provide precise sound localization, creating stable point source objects on the screen and ensuring consistent sound perception from every seat.
Playing back previously created content was a major challenge that ENCIRCLED overcame using IOSONO’s Spatial Audio Workstation, which allows the precise alignment of each channel’s position to the existing speakers used in other aerial attractions by treating multi-channel content as a virtual speaker configuration within the newly constructed dome.
An object-based workflow is beneficial for newly produced content because it stores each sound with 3D positional metadata. This allows the same content file to be presented across different speaker configurations, ensuring excellent quality and effortless content delivery.
“ENCIRCLED is very proud to be part of this project and grateful for the trust placed in us to support the design of the loudspeaker setup for the main show,” says Max Rohrbeinjoint managing director at ENCIRCLED. With over 10 previous flight attraction installations around the world, we brought valuable knowledge and confidently contributed to the acoustic design of this state-of-the-art flight attraction system,”
ENCIRCLED’s IOSONO spatial audio system enhances the immersive experience and sets a new standard for Air Travel Attractions‘ Audio quality and adaptability offer visitors a unique and unforgettable experience.
Kraftwerk Living Technologies recently announced details of some of its latest Entertainment projectsincluding the award-winning Bermuda Storm Simulator in the Chimelong Spaceship and flying theaters worldwide.
