Aktuelle News & Schlagzeilen
Polygon plugs into Britannia Row for UK’s largest outdoor 360° spatial audio experience
Polygon Live, a 360-degree immersive audio company that produces listening solutions to live music experiences, held its first UK event this spring, calling on Britannia Row Productions in London before replicating the level of service in North America with LD Systems in the build-up to Bonnaroo Music & Art Festival.
Since 2017, Polygon Live has been working closely with L-Acoustics and a team of spatial audio engineers, and Britannia Row Productions became the organisation’s rental partner for the 3-day Polygon Live LDN event, held at the Italian Terraces at London’s Crystal Palace Park.
“I’ve always been really interested in what high quality audio is, and how it can be experienced”, says Polygon CEO Nico Elliott. “One of the things that triggered my intrigue was listening to quadrophonic sound systems back in the day. You’d see four stacks of speakers and I always thought: ‘That’s interesting, but why are there only four? Why aren’t there more speakers?’ When we came across L-ISA (L-Acoustics’ spatial audio mixing tool) in 2016, we realised it could allow us to do what we wanted to achieve for our event. L-ISA wasn’t designed for a 360 environment, but in a frontal setup, it could be used in a 360 configuration.”
“The reason we do Polygon is not only because we’re extremely passionate about audio and music, but we really want to give people the experience of enjoying music in this format, where from the audience, you can hear so much more detail”, he adds. “If you listen to your favourite artist in stereo and then in a Polygon dome, they’re very different listening experiences.”
“When we were looking for an audio partner to do our first event in London, we came across Britannia Row”, he continues. “I had a wonderful experience dealing with Account Executive Dave Compton. We received rapid quotations, even though we had many changes along the way. We even re-designed the space at one point and Britannia Row were so supportive.”
“The technical staff at Britannia Row went to great efforts to understand what we were trying to do and why we were asking for certain pieces of gear”, furthers Polygon Systems Designer David Lopez de Arenosa. “They were able to truly fulfil our needs, even suggesting other pieces that could streamline the process.” Elliott adds: “As a result, the system Britannia Row deployed sounded better than I’ve ever heard it sound in a short time frame.”
At Crystal Palace, Polygon benefitted from a 12.1.4 immersive audio system that fully enveloped the audience 360-degrees. L-Acoustics L2D speakers were hung up front, with A15s for surrounds, A10s overhead, and KS28 subwoofers for low end reinforcement. All speakers were within a 25 m circular radius so that every audience member received an intimate, immersive listening experience.
“We used the L-ISA processor to fully spatialise the music around the audience”, explains Lopez de Arenosa. “One of the elements that makes Polygon unique is that we prioritise the sound experience with a no-compromise approach. The speakers aren’t 150 ft away behind a video wall or flown high up out of the way of projector screens; they are exactly where they need to be.”
“Technically, there was a lot of complex routing and signal processing behind the scenes to pull off seven fully spatialised live performances each day, with minimal downtime between acts”, he details. “Two FOH consoles were working in an A/B configuration so that while one band is performing, the next band is line checking backstage. Each act also had its own L-ISA processor with over forty drive channels to the PA system. That had to be crossfaded seamlessly between acts through a DirectOut Prodigy matrix processor. On top of that, we had customised multi-channel spatial audio music playlists between the acts.”
Polygon’s next outing was set for Bonnaroo in Tennessee, which would have seen many artists play in stereo outputs rather than multi tracks or with live instruments, and the Polygon team spatialising single tracks. However, with severe weather warnings in place, the festival was cancelled after just one day of programming due to safety concerns. With the festival pre-production process staying within Clair Global, courtesy of Houston-based LD Systems, the build-up was seamless, notes Elliott.
Thomas Ruffner, LD Systems Audio Operations Manager, adds: “When the Infinity stage design at Bonnaroo first came on our radar in late 2024, we were extremely excited to be involved as it would be our first chance to work on a L-ISA project. However, we also understood that it would be a complex undertaking that would require additional rental resources beyond our (then) inventory. Fast-forward to 2025, and after the announcement that LD Systems was joining Clair Global, we began collaborating with worldwide operations who were instrumental in assisting us with those equipment needs. It’s very inspiring to experience that level of support.”
“The support of Clair Global on an international scale ensured equipment needs were met through LD Systems”, furthers Bryan Woodall, LD Systems Audio Crew Chief/Systems Engineer. “The immersive sound experience requires a sophisticated hemispherical system design that is vastly different than a traditional stereo deployment. By working directly with Polygon at our LD Systems headquarters, we were able to mockup the system’s control package and amplifier network in preparation for a smooth system deployment.”
“You learn so much with these deep learning curves”, Elliott concludes. “When you’re under this level of pressure, it’s amazing what can be achieved.”
(Photos: Ben McQuaide)
SCHLAGZEILEN
news archiv
suche
© 1999 - 2025 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories
