EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney) is Europe’s first installed L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound 360° system in a vibrant new arts center for live music, mixed arts, and performance located in the former Savoy cinema in Dalston, east London. The system aims to deliver an all-round incredible audio experience for audiences and artists alike.
EartH is the brainchild of Auro, champion of Hackney nightlife and founder of Village Underground, a commercially successful, sustainable, and community-driven initiative providing affordable workspaces for creatives. Foxcroft and his team drove this project to painstakingly restore the abandoned space to its former Art Déco splendour.
Having an exceptional sound system was central to Auro’s plan to reinvent the building as he understands the importance of sonic excellence and in making a performance something truly memorable rather than just a show!
“After a visit to hear L-ISA in action in Highgate, the EartH team were amazed by the technology and convinced that it was the solution for their venue. The team at L-Acoustics were incredibly helpful and the resulting audio system was very much born from a collaborative approach.”
The downstairs area has been reinvented as a lively, multi-purpose club and social area, and a new restaurant will be opened. Together these three spaces will be the heartbeat of an animated and inclusive performance-orientated environment, open for all to enjoy.
The ground-floor, club-style venue demanded high SPL, and excellent low-end response for the DJ-led music program. In the new theatre space upstairs, however, the brief was a lot more ambitious and complex; this is where Foxcroft wanted the immersive system to support a heterogenic program ranging from spoken-word, dance and performance art to jazz, rock, electronic, and all genres of music.
L-ISA is a multichannel “what you hear is what you see” platform, ideally suited to bringing immersive sound into experiential venues. Fundamental to the philosophy is ‘connecting’ the audience to the sonic experience, bringing total clarity to both audience and performers feel like they are part of a smaller, deeper and altogether more intimate experience.
The theatre’s L-ISA loudspeaker configuration comprises a frontal system, supplemented by surrounds and overheads providing a 360-degree, multidimensional mixing environment.
Adlib project manager Rob Crossland commented, “This is very straightforward an immersive L-ISA system with side, rear, and overhead extensions. As more venues move to L-ISA, this approach will allow touring productions to move between similar systems without re-working their entire show every night”.
Adlib’s KSE Sam Proctor attended the tuning and calibration session with the L-Acoustics applications engineers to learn more about the finer details of working with L-ISA technology.
EartH’s house audio team of Luca Romani and Alessandro Melchior will be running the systems and providing support for visiting engineers utilising the L-ISA platform, they were also heavily involved in the equipment specification and installation.
They’ve been trained on optimising the system and the finer points of Immersive Hyperreal audio, as well as on-site training from Sam Proctor on Kara, and the system management software, L-Acoustics Network Manager.
Client & “Culturefighter”: Auro Foxcroft
Integrator: Adlib
Director: John Hughes
Project Manager: Rob Crossland
Engineer: Sam Proctor
Manufacturer: L-Acoustics
Sales Manager: Paul McMullen
Application, installation: Jeff Woodward
Application, touring: Sergey Becker
Equipment:
L-ISA Controller, L-ISA Processors in L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound configuration
Frontal System: five arrays of seven Kara; four centrally flown KS28 subs; ten X8 providing front fill.
Surround System: 12 Syva colinear source loudspeakers; eight X8 overhead system.
Traditional left/right complement: L/R arrays of four Kara each with one SB18 per side; four central ground-stacked KS28 subs; 4 ARCS Wide as delays.
X15 HiQ wedges; all powered by LA4X qnd LA12X amplified controllers
2 DiGiCo SD12 consoles with L-ISA integration via Desk Link