The impact of gaming on the live entertainment world cannot be overstated, with high-end audio systems, extraordinary visuals, haptics, and interactivity. A generation that grew up with its own 3D headsets and surround sound is very often forced to settle for a lower quality experience at concerts in sports arenas or outdoor festivals. One company that is working to replicate, and improve on, these high-end immersive experiences outdoors is Polygon.
Polygon offers 360° spatial audio and a multisensory immersive event that can include scent and haptics to re-imagine the experience for concert goers around the world. Based in London, Hong Kong, and Thailand, Polygon uses a unique system of hemispherical domes, speaker placements, and sound design to create an even and exact listening experience, no matter where in the venue audience members are, or when moving around. In addition, it provides opportunities for lighting that makes the audience part of the show, in addition to onstage lighting displays.
Previously seen at several international festivals such as Wonderfruit in Thailand and Soundstorm in Saudi Arabia, the company is expanding the experience in the UK and US this year by using two domes for Polygon Live LDN in London’s Crystal Palace Park in May, and three domes at Bonnaroo in Tennessee in June.
Nico Elliott, Polygon CEO, explains how the company maintains the experience for all concert goers. “We're limited to the way we like to deliver spatial audio because of the laws of physics and sound delay times, so we restrict ourselves to a 25-meter diameter dome. However, we can keep the kind of sonic experience we want to deliver and increase the capacity by building multiple domes. So, for example, in Crystal Palace we have a 5,000-person capacity license and two domes, but there isn’t really anything stopping us from doing five or seven connected domes.”
The system works by strategic speaker placement and a collaboration with L-Acoustics, using one of the new spatial audio software solutions. Elliott says, “So far, for almost all of our deployments of this setup, we have used the L-ISA Processor. The solution that we are deploying in Crystal Palace is to have the front of house engineers (if the artists bring one) work very closely with our spatial engineers. They may spend some time in the studio looking at what's possible to position their sound objects within this hemispherical dome and look at how they want to place their composition within this new environment.”
The system offers the ability to design the sound around the venue, so the audience can feel the bass or the high notes from different placements around them depending on the desired mix, and the quality of the sound won’t vary based on their distance from the stage or audio amplification points. Controlling sound in the round is crucial. Elliott says, “The moment you start putting rhythmic elements around you, you are going to hear maybe a kick drum, and then 15 milliseconds later you’ll hear it again and that's not what you want. A lot of work goes into the content and what can be done with it within a spherical array of speakers to ensure that what's being moved, and where it's being placed, really allows an amazing listening experience. It's a careful process of working with artists to ensure that they are happy.
The goal is not to replicate the studio sound for a piece of music, but to design it to fit the way the artist wants it to be heard in the live space. “Ideally, we work with an artist who has produced their own music or has music that's broken down into its constituent elements which we call stems. They come to us with those different elements in Ableton, or software like it, and we funnel those objects into L-ISA Studio and then the artist and our team work to position them. We can position up to 96 objects within the speaker array and move them around from speaker to speaker, or in circles, or coming from above and moving down, or any direction. The artists work with our audio engineers to achieve a really beautiful result by taking those stems and putting them together in a way that makes sense with that speaker array.
“We have two “front of house” positions for the house engineer and our spatial engineer, one inside the dome and one outside, which replicates exactly the audio setup. The front of house engineer can experience what the spatial mix sounds like in both to make sure that it sounds perfect for the audience in every area.”
Lighting and audio teams work together and with the artist so that the audio can provide data to create lighting triggers. Elliott describes it this way, “There is a kind of lattice of LED tubes around and above the stage, in addition to a lot of other lighting products including moving heads and lasers and these can receive data from the L-ISA software in order to synchronize these moments. The lighting designers are free to busk some moments, and some elements are preprogrammed, for example some playback fades during changeovers between live acts and bands. There are playbacks of well-known legacy artists which we are really excited about and we're working in the studio to spatialize the audio, and those lighting effects will be time coded to follow the music around. This creates really interesting ways for the audience to experience songs that we've all heard for many years and love, but we are not just recreating the studio mix but create a new listening experience that's very different from the way people usually experience them live. The experience is heightened by this combined experience with lighting effects.”
The lighting crew will sit alongside the audio team and can use whatever console they are used to. “There's no clash of control, you can definitely use a grandMA or other lighting console and we provide the link between lighting and audio.”
In addition to integrating audio and lighting, Polygon is working on methods of deploying scent as part of the experience. At events in Thailand, a network of tubes connected to smoke machines have been used to add natural essences to the atmosphere as smell can play a significant role in shaping experience and the memory of it. Although the company hasn’t decided if it will introduce scent during the London shows, Elliott says it is something the company is excited to refine, with an end goal of making scent dispersal another tool for a DJ or lighting director.
The Crystal Palace shows will take place under a tent, as the domes don’t protect the audience from rain, although all the equipment used is IP66-rated. He says, “We can't guarantee the weather in London in May, so we create a really beautifully lit and warm arena for the domes.” The system has already proved itself robust enough to withstand rainstorms in Thailand (at Wonderfruit).
Another avenue Polygon is experimenting with is haptics. At the moment, haptics at concerts are more commonly used for hearing impaired audience members, but Polygon is now testing vests to help all wearers feel the sound.
“We've tried them out at a few of our recent events and we've had really positive feedback,” Elliott says. “They look like waist coats, and communicate with the audio using a Bluetooth connection, in much the same way that performers with wireless mics are fitted with a little pack, so the impact of the bass or kick drum is replicated in the vest in real time. Obviously, we are excited for anyone who is hearing impaired to elevate the experience, but we also want to expand their use to anyone.”
The advantage of a wearable versus seats that are fitted with haptics—such as at Sphere or some large indoor sports arenas—is that the concert goer can dance and move around and still have the sensory connection. Conventional wisdom is that if you are at a concert and the music is loud you can “feel” it then you should be wearing ear plugs but this is one way to feel the vibrations without fearing hearing loss.
Elliott believes that, “If you draw attention to the technology, you haven’t done the job. You should really immerse people in that experience without making it obvious. Our amazing team of engineers have been working on this since 2017 so that we can create a really careful artistic work to show off the artist not the technology.”