Keen to enhance elaborately branded arena designs with advanced and integrated multimedia, production designers were quick to realise that immersive multichannel sound was essential to complement the abundance of intelligent lighting effects and multi-screen abstract video content. DJs were provided with an Octopad drum pad to trigger pre-programmed virtual surround sound spins, figure-of-eights and zigzag moves in TiMax via MIDI, along with a few samples of helicopters and Harleys for spot effects. The TiMax DSP level/delay matrix then applied continually sliding level and delay values to create immersive dynamic pans for all revellers wherever they were on the dance floor, eliminating the central sweetspot usually created by conventional level-only panning devices.
The TiMax systems were supplied to Britannia Row Productions for each event under Out Board's rental programme, at the request of corporate sales manager Jim Alexander.
(Ruth Rossington)
