Summit One Vanderbilt: the immersive sound experience over New York

Kenzo Digital, together with sound designer Joseph Fraioli, They have created 'Air', a space in Summit One Vanderbilt that combines mirror configurations that reflect the city with systems of Meyer Sound, Neumann and more.

In the ranking of the tallest buildings in the world, One Vanderbilt has become one of the new tourist attractions in New York with the space Summit One Vanderbilt , which occupies three floors, from the 91, to offer a sound experience, visual and immersive that has as its protagonist the enjoyment of this city with impressive views (more data in Digital AV).

Designed by Kenzo Digital, and called Air, The experience is configured in a series of spaces: Transcendence, Affinity, Transcendence 2, Levitation y Unity, composed of mirrors that reflect the exterior views of the city and inside they fragment in all directions, that as the visitor progresses in his tour, add new visual and sound effects.

Precisely this last aspect, the sound, It is one of the elements that stars in the immersive experience from the moment visitors begin their tour in Transcendence. La creación del variado paisaje sonoro de Air has also been the work of Joseph Fraioli, sound designer Jafbox Sound .

As Fraioli himself explains in a video on his website, For the project he has captured and combined different sounds, with the aim of creating a relaxing and sensory environment that integrates with the visual experience enjoyed by visitors.

Specifically, Fraioli details that to record the sound of glass and wind instruments, very characteristic of New York, to the point of including the one that Hurricane Sandy produced a few years ago as it passed through the city and that this specialist captured, has used the KMR shotgun microphones 81 y RSM 191 of Neumann.

“I got the cleanest possible recordings of the different glass sounds,” says Fraioli., that mixes with reverb Eventide H8000, together with the controller Soundwell Ten, “which allows sounds to be mapped everywhere and combined with different frequencies”.

During this process, Fraioli did other sound mixing in his audio room with sound systems. Dolby, while combining it with mirror surfaces, like those installed in Air, with the help of the MPS monitors 2520 y 2510 y subwoofers MX350 of M&K Sound, with production in Avid Pro Tools.

The result was sent to Kenzo Digital for integration into the Galaxy system of Meyer Sound inside Air, where more than a hundred of speakers MM-4 from this manufacturer.

The combination of all the sound captures is used to guide visitors within the installation and create an immersive sound experience that adds to the visual experience produced by the mirrors..