Argentina - A new immersive sound experience has opened recently at Punta Ballena, a leading whale-watching centre in Puerto Pirámides in Patagonia. The setup in the experience room uses Dolby Atmos technology with Audient Oria at its heart, and introduces a new, innovative dimension for tourists visiting the centre.
“It allows visitors to immerse themselves in the ocean’s soundscape and gain a sense of what it feels like to be a whale,” explains marine biologist and diver Gonzalo Bravo, a member of the team. “It offers a sensory journey that helps participants understand how whales communicate and interact. This experience complements the company’s traditional whale-watching tours, providing an even deeper connection to marine life.”
The immersive experience room is a specially designed space located next to the café where visitors either wait to board their whale-watching tours or relax afterwards. With enough space to accommodate 15 people, the room offers visitors the chance to bathe in an uninterrupted eight-minute sound piece about whales, before or after boarding the boat to see the real thing.
The audio equipment was specified and installed by sound engineer and immersive audio connoisseur, Fernando Richard. It comprises 11 Kali Audio LP6 monitors, an EVE Audio TS108 Subwoofer and the Oria immersive audio interface and monitor controller. He described Oria as “the obvious choice for the project” citing “ease of integration, calibration and setup” as well as its compatibility with both Windows and iOS computers.
Fernando has a strong background in immersive audio. The first to install a Dolby Atmos approved music studio - Immersive Audio Solutions (IAS) - in Buenos Aires, he went on to design the Atmos studios at Casa Frida and the Escuela de Música Contemporánea, where he also teaches music production.
Developing this listening room was quite a different task. “You don’t have a specific sweet spot which faces the front. People are going to be standing or sitting in different parts of the room,” he explains, describing it as a 360 room rather than a traditional Dolby Atmos studio. “The other thing is that the acoustics are not like those in a studio. It’s more like a living room or a home theatre, so I needed to be very careful with the low frequency calibration.”
Having got the room set up correctly, it was important that the system was easy to use for staff at the centre. With approximately 60 people passing through the café every 90 minutes, and up to five tours taking place daily, there is no time for technical hitches.
Fernando is confident that everybody working at Punta Ballena is conversant with the audio system. “It is very easy to use. Oria has the calibration curve and profile. I also made different templates for different DAWs - they can install the Oria software on any computer, open the profile and all the calibration is ready,” he says. “Luckily the staff was eager to learn about the system and did an incredible job.”
After setting up and testing the system, Fernando was really impressed with his private immersive sound experience. “It’s awesome,” he says. “It’s like being underwater with the whales. For anybody that takes the boat tour and sees the whales from the surface, a visit to the immersive room will make the experience complete.”
The sound experience itself was conceptualized by the team at Oceanar, whose core mission is to create projects that inspire reconciliatory experiences between humans and nature. With biologist and artist Candelaria Piemonte as creative lead, the sound design - local whale sounds recorded by Claudio Nicolini coupled with music by Juan Meisen - was produced and mixed by Mariano Cukierman.
Punta Ballena has 40 years’ experience developing whale-watching tourism along the Península Valdés stretch of coastline - also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Promoting responsible and respectful whale-watching practices, the company incorporates marine biologists into its team to help raise awareness about marine conservation and the importance of protecting the oceans.
The technical aspects of the project were overseen by Audient’s partner in Argentina, Planeta Analógico’s Daniel Paracha.
