Lighting Sound America SpaceMap: 20 Years of Audio Origami · 80 † April 2013 † Lighting&Sound...

80 • April 2013 • Lighting&Sound America

TECHNICAL FOCUS: AUDIO

SpaceMap is a Meyer Sound softwaretechnology embedded in the D-Mitridigital audio platform; it lets sounddesigners use a dynamic graphic inter-face to fly sounds through space usingany loudspeaker layout. Initially devel-oped by myself in 1986, SpaceMapwas commercially introduced in 1993as part of the Analog Series by LevelControl Systems (LCS), a companyacquired by Meyer Sound in 2005.SpaceMap has now been implement-ed on four hardware platforms andbeen heard by millions of listeners inlive entertainment venues such as the-atres, theme parks, planetariums,cruise ships, parades, special-formatfilms, and others.

In this story, we will retraceSpaceMap’s footsteps. Along the way,we’ll hear from some of the designerswho have used it in their work.

What is SpaceMap? SpaceMap allows sound designers tocreate two-dimensional maps of loud-speakers in a space, customize thepower distribution to them, and recordpaths of sound trajectories that can berecalled as part of a sound cue ormapped to incoming time code. Thisprovides a flexible system for definingsurround-sound mapping techniques,regardless of the loudspeaker layout.Three-dimensional sound fields can beexplored by using multiple concurrentSpaceMaps and the concept of audio“divergence.” Through its lifetime,SpaceMap has been refined and

evolved, but the fundamentals areunchanged from its inception.

In the beginning, there was a trian-gle. In 1986 and 1987, I had theopportunity to work with FloatingExceptions, a group of computerartists in Canberra, Australia, who builta portable polymedia performancespace. The venue was a geodesicdome, 22' in diameter. While 16 loud-speakers were suspended with anarrangement of three offset groups offive, a single loudspeaker was hungdirectly above. I was one of a smallgroup developing an algorithmic musi-cal vocabulary for this space. One taskinvolved distributing sound to theloudspeakers in a simple, elegant way.An efficient way of representing asound on the surface of the dome wasto use the three closest loudspeakers.Once these were identified, we coulddistribute power to them to locate thesound. This solution was certainlyinspired by the architecture of thevenue. Unfortunately, the hardwaretechnology available to us at the timewas not sufficient to fully realize this.We were using early Macintosh com-puters and MIDI technology to controlsynthesizers that were dedicated toeach loudspeaker. This provided alow-resolution look at what was yet tocome. However, the concept of thetriset, the fundamental building blockof SpaceMap, was born.

In late 1992, LCS shipped its firstmultichannel audio control system,affectionately known as R2D2, for

George Lucas’s Super Live Adventure,a touring theatre show developed byFeld Productions. The late, great showcontrol designer Damon Woottenreferred to Super Live Adventure as “across between a tractor pull and aMegadeth concert.” It was an enor-mous undertaking, requiring that theaudio hardware platform and controlsoftware be developed in just a fewmonths. SpaceMap didn’t make it in,but the system did feature a fully auto-mated analog matrix and hierarchicalcueing engine that set the stage forSpaceMap’s entrance.

After the show completed its tour ofJapan, the hardware was redesignedto be more cost-effective and expand-able, and the software was further

SpaceMap: 20 Years of Audio OrigamiBy: Steve Ellison

The evolution of an audio technologyacross two decades—and several product platforms

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www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • April 2013 • 81

developed. Enter SpaceMap. Whendeveloping it for this hardware plat-form in my small office, I used anarrangement of four loudspeakers inthe corners of the room and one over-head. Theatrical sound designers haveused overhead loudspeakers for yearsto extend the auditory experiencearound and above the audience.

It didn’t take long to realize that notall systems would include loudspeak-ers in overhead positions. Further,when a sound was dragged off theedge of the map, the sound uncere-moniously cut out. This led to severalimprovements. First, the concept ofthe virtual speaker was introduced.This would be a point, or node, in themap that would send sound to agroup of user-specified loudspeakers.Now we could remove our overheadspeaker node and replace it with a vir-tual node. When sound was draggedoverhead, it would be distributed tothe four corner loudspeakers. Second,the concept of the silent node wasadded. This let designers place nodesof the SpaceMap around the outsideedges so that power could be distrib-uted to these null loudspeakers andgenerate smooth fades. Derivednodes were introduced to createregional subwoofers or under-balconyfeeds. The means to record a soundtrajectory and place it in a cue associ-ated with a mix bus completed theauditory picture.

Las Vegas, the familyentertainment capital?The 1990s saw an uptick in the num-ber of the Las Vegas casinos attract-ing more families as a vacation desti-nation, leading to extended-run enter-tainment extravaganzas. In 1993, twoLas Vegas shows would be the first touse LCS’ new second-generationAnalog Series hardware and cue con-trol software. Starlight Express,Andrew Lloyd Webber’s roller-skatingmusical, opened at the Hilton, andCirque du Soleil’s Mystère opened atSteve Wynn’s Treasure Island.

Starlight used SpaceMap effectively,if not predictably, to pan surroundsound effects overhead as the“engines,” played by actors onskates, raced around the arena.Mystère sound designer JonathanDeans took this several steps further,using his surround system withSpaceMap more as an instrument,

bringing voices over and around theaudience, soaring with the trapeze.Mystère, like SpaceMap, has per-formed for nearly 20 years andrecently completed its second majoraudio upgrade, still using the soundcues developed nearly 20 years ago.

Deans says, “Buying a ticket to seea live event, I should have a unique

“Buying a ticket to see a live event, I shouldhave a unique experience with sound in thesame way as I do when sitting, standing, or trav-eling to the performance. Having sound deliv-ered to me in a manner that I can recreate athome or in my car is not interesting to me. Whatis the point of going to an event if it is not aunique experience? Designing a sound systemthat is unique is one step, and then applying theaudio sources to the system for that particularvenue and/or event is crucial. If not, it is utilitysound. Using SpaceMap can make an eventtruly special, as each passing moment of audiois unique and cannot be reproduced in any wayother than at that particular event.” –Jonathan Deans

Walt Disney Concert Hall.



experience with sound in the sameway as I do when sitting, standing, ortraveling to the performance. Havingsound delivered to me in a mannerthat I can recreate at home or in mycar is not interesting to me. What isthe point of going to an event if it isnot a unique experience? Designing asound system that is unique is onestep, and then applying the audiosources to the system for that particu-

lar venue and/or event is crucial. If not,it is utility sound. Using SpaceMap canmake an event truly special, as eachpassing moment of audio is uniqueand cannot be reproduced in any wayother than at that particular event.”

As part of the LCS Analog Series,SpaceMap broke ground in severalareas in the early ‘90s, includingtheme parks (Universal StudiosHollywood’s Flintstones show), reper-

tory theatre (South Coast Repertory inCosta Mesa, California), and highereducation (Colby College, YaleUniversity). The Analog Series’ lasthurrah would be for the FremontStreet Experience, a multi-blockinstallation in the original Las Vegasstrip where special software was writ-ten to create a system with twice asmany mix buses (16) as the original;sound designer Alan Howarth usedthe system to help automate and pansounds in synch with the light andanimation display.

Going digital—LD-88,Matrix3, D-MitriSpaceMap really came into its ownwith the advent of digital audio tech-nology, beginning with LCS’ LD-88SuperNova series in 1996, Matrix3 in2000, and D-Mitri in 2010. This plat-form evolution provided successiveimprovements in audio quality, controlresolution, and programming software.All three supported the ability for theSpaceMap trajectories to be stored inthe hardware itself, providing the morerobust embedded automation requiredfor large-scale integrated systems,including theme parks.

François Bergeron, a sounddesigner and principal with themeentertainment specialist ThinkwellGroup, has worked with SpaceMapsince its inception on various plat-forms in venues in Asia, NorthAmerica, and Europe. He appreci-ates how the work flow required fordesigning sound for large-scalemultichannel systems has beenstreamlined by SpaceMap. “As par-adoxical as this may sound,” hesays, “having a visual representa-tion as the audio moves throughoutthe space has been an essentialelement of our soundscape cre-ations since the late 1990s.

“Without visual cues, the majorityof our time would be spent runningaround the space, trying to listen foreach move. With SpaceMap, we areable to see where we place thesound, record multiple iterativemoves, and then walk around the the-atre for a final confirmation.”

SpaceMap from Walt Disney Concert Hall: A prerecorded flute responding to a flautistonstage by moving up to the ceiling and then around the room, ending at house rear left.

SpaceMap from KÀ: Three levels of vertical pan moving sound from the seats to over-head point sources to ambient speakers in the ceiling.


Repertory theatreWhile playing to more intimate audi-ences than the big Vegas productions,sound designers like Jim Neil, ofToronto, Ontario’s Stratford Festival,now had a tool to help them solvedesign problems and take their pro-ductions places they couldn’t havegone otherwise.

Neil recalls, “At the Grand Theatrein [London, Ontario] a few years ago,we did a Peter Pan that included atwist in the normal telling of that story.Tinker Bell’s onstage image wasachieved by using a moving lightfocused on the set pieces, and anactor was in the wings speaking thelines on a microphone. Sometimes thelines would happen when Tinker Bellwas in one spot, but other times it waswhen she was flying about the room. Iused SpaceMap to match the voice tothe light image on the stage. It wastruly amazing as we developed the tra-jectories for both the lights and sound.As the lighting department refined theirpositions, I was able to keep the voicecoming from wherever Tinker Bell waspositioned. When I did the show againa few years later in Stratford, I knewexactly how I was going to matchTinker Bell's sounds to her positionson the stage. Once again, it workedjust how I imagined it would.”

This is one of SpaceMap’s keystrengths: The move is rendered in realtime during the performance. So if atouring show moves from one venueto another, the move can be recreatedby creating a new SpaceMap to corre-spond to the new loudspeaker layout.The cues and trajectories don’t needto be rewritten.

Audio origami: from virtualnodes to virtual worldsWhile SpaceMap is adept at repre-senting arbitrary surround-sound loud-speaker layouts and creating audiotrajectories, it also provides a moreabstract potential that some artistshave tapped into. Zachary Seldess, aresearch associate at University ofCalifornia at San Diego’s CALIT2 labo-ratory, where multichannel audio pan-ning is a prime area of research,

helped facilitate the integration ofSpaceMap into the CORNEA virtualreality system at King AbdullahUniversity of Science and Technology(KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.

Seldess says, “It is quite commonfor sound spatialization techniques(e.g. VBAP, DBAP, wave field synthe-sis, and Ambisonics) to deal in real-space metaphors by providing meth-ods for composers and sound design-ers to choreograph sound as a virtualextension of the listening space. Thisapproach to thinking about sound as

existing in and moving around the 3-Dspace of the listener in the same waythat real objects move can facilitateboth powerful artistic expression andrealism, to be sure. However, I amconvinced that there are powerfulartistic advantages to abstracted spa-tial mappings when thinking of soundlocalization, and this conviction growsprimarily out of my work with MeyerSound’s SpaceMap system.

“By abstracting the speakers awayfrom their 3-D origins and providing anenvironment for flexibly resituating



them within one or more 2-D spatialmaps, SpaceMap allows sounddesigners to construct their ownunique physical rules and constraintsfor the way sound moves in space,”Seldess says. “Using SpaceMap, onecan, of course, still quite easily designmaps that allow intuitive ‘realistic’movement within a listening space.But it is the flexibility in choicebetween realism, abstraction, and thespace in between that allows for thecreation of sonic gestures that would

not be possible otherwise.”Sound artist Naut Humon pioneered

the use of multichannel audio in artis-tic events where art and technologyintersected in many unexpected ways.His collaborative, Sound Traffic Control(STC), utilized multiple LCS platformswith SpaceMap throughout the ‘90s tohelp realize its sonic adventures.

Scot Gresham-Lancaster, now alecturer in sound design at theUniversity of Texas at Dallas, workedwith STC early on and spent time

exploring SpaceMap’s possibilities.“My favorite SpaceMap experi-

ment,” Gresham-Lancaster says, “onlysaw the light of day (or night, in thiscase) inside a small performance.Using a map of the Tibetan Yantra [justthe center part of the classic image, asshown on page 92] I decided which ofthe intersections in the diagram werethe points that represented the eightchannels in this case, and then everyother point of intersection on theYantra was a virtual speaker. Thismade for an amazing and unpre-dictable set of sheets and planes ofsound that would collapse into thepoint that was the actual speaker. Thisis hard to describe and like nothing Ihave been able to do withoutSpaceMap. The interesting thing aboutthis approach was that it was not con-cerned with trying to make a represen-tation of the smooth movement of asound from point A to point B, butrather to make a type of sound densityfrom any material that was playedthrough the SpaceMap that was adynamic representation of the spaceitself and the multidimensional foldingof space represented in the Yantra.”

Walt Disney Concert Hall singsIn 2003, John Williams was commis-sioned to write a piece to be per-formed by the Los AngelesPhilharmonic on the occasion of theopening of Walt Disney Concert Hall.Williams says: “As I admired the halland studied its interior, I wonderedwhat it might be like if the building’sbrilliant exterior surfaces could besounded and the hall actually ‘sang’ tous. These thoughts suggested thethird section, ‘The Hall Responds,’ inwhich the hall itself becomes a partnerin the music-making. The orchestrasounds a vibrant low D, and the hallreverberates and responds. Threeother great sails are sounded as theorchestra, led by the solo flute, sendsmessages, which are returned to usfrom various locations in the hall.”

To bring the hall to sonic life,Williams enlisted the help of scoringmixer Shawn Murphy, whose back-

The SpaceMap from KÀ snakes up and down the line arrays; sound shimmers whenmixed with a stationary signal.

The main SpaceMap created for Bill Fontana's “Soaring Echoes” installation in Chicago’sMillennium Park.


ground in theatre sound design ledhim to consider the appropriate tools.

“We used ProTools to record andassemble the basic tracks,” Murphyexplains. “But I realized that, since theloudspeakers were not going to beplaced in a ‘traditional’ surroundsound format, we needed a system tomix the sources that could adapt tothe layout.”

Using Matrix3, Murphy createdSpaceMaps that allowed sounds to bepreprogrammed to move seamlesslywithin the concert hall, utilizing eightdiscrete full-range loudspeakers andtwo subwoofers. In order to supportthe illusion of the hall “singing”, loud-speaker positions were selected thatindirectly reached the audience, withsound reflecting off interior surfacesfirst. This helped to create a natural,diffuse movement of sound that effec-tively surrounded the audience withoutoverpowering the orchestra.

Mark Swed, music critic for the LosAngeles Times, wrote, “John Williams’

‘Soundings,’ which premieredSaturday night, tested the possibilitiesfor spatial effects in the hall: Missionaccomplished … The hall, throughWilliams’ score, quivered, trembled,pulsated, throbbed. There were eerieand extravagant effects I couldn’t quiteidentify. Once, it sounded as if a bat-tery of glass harmonicas surroundedthe audience. Williams cleverly createdthe amazing illusion of instrumentstraveling about this listening space. Adeep electronic organ note made theground on which we sat feel alive.”

Perspective and possibilitiesSpaceMap has made it possible toaddress large-scale systems in waysthat would be nearly impossible with-out it. In 2010, the Dutch musicalSoldaat van Oranje (Soldier of Orange)was mounted with the entire audiencesituated on a large rotating platform.There were 14 main loudspeakerarrays in fixed positions, and the

action moved as the audience wasrotated to the next set. Sound design-er Jeroen ten Brinke used D-Mitri tomaintain the audience’s proper audioperspective. As the platform rotated,rotational coordinates were sent to aD-Mitri system that used SpaceMap todecode them and create the propermix. Without SpaceMap, it would havebeen impossible to pan the completemultichannel surround image while theaudience was moving.

In Cirque du Soleil’s KÀ, whichopened in 2005, Deans usedSpaceMap in what the Los AngelesTimes referred to as what “may well bethe most lavish production in the his-tory of Western theatre. It is surely themost technologically advanced.” Thetheatre, with a capacity of 1,950 peo-ple, is equipped with a total of 4,774loudspeaker drivers in 2,139 cabinets,including a pair of speakers at earlevel in every seat in the auditorium. Inaddition, there are distributed loud-speakers overhead, conventional sur-

rounds, and upstage and downstageline arrays. KÀ assistant sound design-er Leon Rothenberg built more than 30SpaceMaps to create unique pannersto sculpt the highly cinematic scoreand sound effects. This allowed soundto fly smoothly between the higher-powered arrays, seat speakers, andeverything in between.

“We sat in that massive theatre onenight and brainstormed all the differentways we could move sound aroundthe space,” Rothenberg says. “Which,on that system, was no small number.

It was like exploring a really big cave;we kept turning corners and thinkingof more cool stuff to do. ThenJonathan [Deans] tasked me withmaking a sound system demo, which Idid with a ‘megamix’ of different kindsof music to show off the differentaspects of our massive PA. The demoran off an iPod—the idea was to showhow you could fill the space, be totallyimmersive with just two tracks ofaudio. To be thrown in the deep endlike that was a lot of fun, like every-thing up to that point was time in the

simulator, and this was the first bigmission. The composers, directors,and producers were duly impressed.We were off and running.”

Rothenberg adds, “We developedSpaceMaps for very specificmoments. The bubble map [effect] hadthe position of gurgling bubblesmapped to a fader on the console.This allowed the operator to mix theposition of the sound to match theposition of the performer swimming inthe ocean during [the sequence knownas] ‘The Deep.’ Other maps had moresubtle functions. One of my favoritethings to do with SpaceMap in KÀ isto move sound through parts of a PAand mix it with a stationary signal. Itcreates a great shimmering effect, asubtle sense of movement withoutbeing intrusive. We did this a lot forthe guitar, giving it a great sense ofspace and life.”

Sound artist Bill Fontana hasexplored the relationship betweenplace, structure, and sound in installa-tions throughout the world. He hasbrought sonic life to public spaces andmuseums including San Francisco,New York, Paris, London, Berlin,Venice, Sydney, Tokyo, and, mostrecently, Chicago. In 2012, Fontanacreated the public sound installation“Soaring Echoes” that, he says, “dislo-cates the viewer within its host envi-ronment, transforming perceptions oftime and space.” The Jay PritzkerPavilion, an outdoor music band shelldesigned by Frank Gehry, is the cen-terpiece of Chicago’s Millennium Park.Threshold Acoustics’ Jonathan Laneyintegrated D-Mitri with the pavilion’sexisting sound system, a steel trellisequipped with 102 loudspeakers thatarcs above the Great Lawn.

Fontana says, “I created a series ofspatial compositions with SpaceMapthat expands the act of listening whilereframing our everyday experience ofthe city. Multiple layers of moving tra-jectories of sound float through,above, and around the lawn.” Thesounds in the compositions wererecorded in Chicago’s natural, urban,marine, and historical environments.

“Using SpaceMap to achieve this





result was an amazing experience thatcould not have been realized with anyother interface, as I could stand underthe trellis and create individual trajec-tories upon individual trajectories bymoving a cursor through the inter-face,” Fontana concludes.

With his outdoor installation at thePritzker Pavilion, SpaceMap has gonefull circle; from a 16-channel systemsuspended in a geodesic tent inCanberra to a 102-channel systemsuspended in a trellis in Chicago. Sowhat does the future hold?

Perhaps Reggie Watts can providea clue. Watts is a staple of the interna-tional performance scene, and hisimprovised musical sets are createdon the spot, using only his formidablevoice and a looping machine. Herecently explored SpaceMap in MeyerSound’s Pearson Theatre at Berkeley.

“The experience I had usingSpaceMap exceeded my expectationsand helped me realize a lifelongdream,” Watts says. “I had alwaysimagined the ability to position/movesound anywhere in a room at will usingan intuitive interface. Hearing it in reali-ty as opposed to hearing it in myimagination was quite a surprise, andit presents me with a whole host ofpossibilities.”

How will these possibilities be real-ized? New productions usingSpaceMap that, as Deans says, canonly be experienced at one place andone time will continue to motivate usto leave the comfort of our home witha few people and enjoy a shared expe-rience with many people. For the last20 years, SpaceMap has extendedsound designers’ sonic vocabulary,evolving along with the audio plat-forms on which it has been hosted.How high the bar will be raised in thenext 20 years will be up to the artist’screative vision.

Steve Ellison is applications directorfor digital products at Meyer Sound.

“In 2010, the Dutch musical Soldaat van Oranje(Soldier of Orange) was mounted with the entireaudience situated on a large rotating platform.There were 14 main loudspeaker arrays in fixedpositions, and the action moved as the audiencewas rotated to the next set. Sound designerJeroen ten Brinke used D-Mitri to maintain theaudience’s proper audio perspective. As theplatform rotated, rotational coordinates weresent to a D-Mitri system that used SpaceMap todecode them and create the proper mix.”

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