Ultrasensory perception at EMPAC

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, one of the world’s foremost engineering and research colleges and the oldest technological university in the USA, unveiled the multi-venue Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) last year, which is fittingly equipped with precision stage engineering.

At the briefing stage of the project, an international competition was launched to find design specialists who could visualise a coherent but immensely flexible space with exceptional architectural attributes and audience interfaces, and this led to the selection of the British firm, Grimshaw. The permanent US office of Stage Technologies was brought on board by JR Clancy to provide the theatre automation system, which included automating all of the acoustic banners and ceiling panels to enable easy alterations to the unique acoustical properties of the venue. The theatre and studio contain 8 and 10 winches respectively that can be rigged into any bridle combination to enable intricate patterns of 3D performer flying utilising the award-winning Visual Creator software. The automation system also controls 50 encoder-fitted chain hoists and, in addition, the theatre’s venues contain third party axes such as winches, the orchestra lift, 22 encoder chain hoists, and flying bars that have been seamlessly integrated into the versatile Stage Technologies control network of Nomad desks, Solos and Solo Stations.

The 20,500m² EMPAC has four venues: a concert hall, a theatre and two performance studios. A 1,900m² glass wall contours the north side of the building and, by means of a water/glycol mix circulating through the steel support beams, this futuristic feature maintains even temperatures and limits condensation.

The main concert hall seats 1,200 and the acoustical firm Kirkegaard Associates was contracted to design the acoustics.  The hall is optimised for musicians not only on the stage, but anywhere around the audience. Extensive research into materials, including weaving special fabrics and computer modelling, was undertaken before construction of the ceiling canopy to optimize the transmission of sound waves. EMPAC’s concert hall is the first venue in the world to have an acoustical ceiling made out of fabric instead of heavy, inert materials, and uses Nomex®, a revolutionary, heat- and flame-resistant fiber by Dupont™. Another unique feature of the concert hall is that the concrete ceiling has 60 core-drilled holes, from which acoustical plugs can be removed in order to position chain hoists. This allows any truss, platform, screen or object to be hung anywhere in the volume of the concert hall.

The 400-seat theatre comprises a 300m² stage, 18m fly tower, computer-controlled rigging, and one of the largest projection screens in New York. There are two multi-purpose studio spaces, which are lined with acoustical panels designed to create highly diffusive environments that allow sound sources anywhere in the space to be of equal perceptual quality. These areas can be configured as traditional black-box theatres or as open media environments for immersive technology, such as video or audio recording studios.

All these venues have a maximum noise level of 15dB and the video and theatrical lights use sine-wave dimmers, making them some of the quietest multimedia artistic presentation spaces in the world. EMPAC also has a rehearsal studio and several artist-in-residence studios.

The EMPAC website highlights the centre’s aim to “offer artists, visiting scholars, researchers, engineers, designers, and audience opportunities that are available nowhere else under a single roof, providing unsurpassed facilities for creative exploration as well as for research in fields ranging from visualization to immersive environments to large-scale interactive simulations”.

All venues at EMPAC are designed for the fullest flexibility and integration of technology with the senses of seeing, hearing and moving in space. As the building is connected over ultra high-quality audio and video matrices (such as the Lawo audio matrix which is capable of up to 8192 inputs by 8192 output channels and the Harris video router for uncompressed HD with approximately 256 by 256 channels), it has 2k and 4k digital projectors and dance floors for any venue. Within this environment, automated rigging has opened up a world of new dimensions for real-time control of moving objects or people through 3-D space.

The researchers at EMPAC opted to control the entire theatre automation system from their own programs and decided on OSC (Open Sound Control) as a communications protocol which was developed and fine-tuned to work with the Stage Technologies automation system.  This allowed their operators to be able to control and issue commands directly from an OSC-enabled program, which also interfaces and synchronises with cameras, lights, audio and other stage equipment. For example, the system might receive the position of an axis and recognize that it must move a light accordingly or play a specific sound. This implementation allows real-time control of the rigging and automation (including flying) with any software creating OSC-compatible output. This can take the form of algorithmically generated parameters or it can be a control signal derived in real time from any sensor or tracking device. Some examples of this application in layman’s terms might be: the pitch of a singer or the varying volume of a drum could influence rigging; the intensity of lights could control the speed or acceleration of a piece of moving scenery; the position of an automated object or performer flyer could be controlled by the dominant color a video jockey uses in a live-generated video projection.

One of the first projects at EMPAC to unlock this vast, artistic potential, was a conceptual ‘ballet’ of movement and light generated simply from a single dancer. The motion of the dancer was captured by a series of cameras; the camera system outputted the motion coordinates to the automation system; this then moved screens and scenic elements in coordination with the dance; these automation effects were tracked by moving head projectors and lighting; all resulting in a real-time scenic ballet that could be evolved into a circular process via broadcast to external studios, within which the performance could be viewed and added to by another set of systems.

So far in this year’s spring season, EMPAC has hosted an eclectic mix of artists and shows including a series of lectures on the topic of time, the onedotzero_adventures in motionfestival, student orchestras, a cappella and jazz performances, The Builders Association’s multimedia performance of Continuous City, virtuosic music from the 1600’s by Quicksilver ensemble, a site-adaptive dance work by Tere O’Connor, Japanese dogugaeshi-inspired puppetry from Basil Twist and a workshop of musical instrument inventions and concert ‘of electronic pieces composed under the influence of computers and centuries of instrumental music’ by Johannes Goebel, Director of the EMPAC.

It is hoped that the high quality of workmanship and versatility of the automation equipment will enable the research conducted into performance technology at EMPAC to scale new pinnacles of sophistication. With its media capabilities and computational abilities maximised by links to a supercomputer, EMPAC could very well spark a Renaissance in audio-visual media and immersive experience, challenging how we view and interact with tangible and abstract concepts and taking us on adventures into unexplored territories of ultra-sensory perception.

More information: Case study