TiMax creates natural sound imaging inside the NNTT
Published: ASIA
JAPAN: A TiMax2 SoundHub-S32 has been installed at the New National Theatre, Tokyo (NNTT), along with a TiMax Tracker System. When the manager of the venue’s audio division, Kunio Watanabe, requested a multi-tasking system that could produce natural vocal tracking in addition to an immersive audio experience, SCA Sound Solutions supplied the TiMax solution.
The TiMax Tracker system reportedly features six TT Sensors and 32 TT Tags to enable automated vocal localisation and audio control in the NNTT’s Playhouse auditorium, as well as the smaller Pit theatre. ‘We now have a very natural and smooth sound imaging for the actors’ voices, without the feeling of it being a sound “effect”, by which I mean, the audience can sense the individual voice coming from the exact position of the individual singer, not from left, right and centre speakers,’ explained Mr Watanabe. ‘Other systems do not give this.’
The 32-chnnel SoundHub-S32 and Tracker System have already been put to use for a production of Stephen Sondheim's Passion. ‘I could easily adjust the level of each speaker precisely in the process of creating image definitions and there was no sense of incongruity in the sound images created,’ offers the production’s sound designer, Yoshio Ueda. ‘Additionally, transition from image definition to image definition was very smooth and beautiful. The sound of the choir is also faithfully recreated as a 3D spatial image and it sounds very natural.’