At Boston's historic Old South Meeting House, visitors can step directly into the debates, acts of defiance and upheaval that helped ignite the American Revolution through Ruckus!, an experiential exhibit from Revolutionary Spaces.
By combining dynamic multichannel experiential sound, lighting and projected animations throughout the historic space, the experience places visitors at the center of the story, surrounding them with the voices and actions of the people who helped shape a pivotal moment in American history.
From the floorboards to the balconies, Ruckus! uses the architecture of Old South Meeting House itself as part of the storytelling. Projected animations bring revolutionaries, determined citizens and unlikely troublemakers into the story, while recorded voices, sound effects and music bring the narrative to life.
With so many visual and storytelling elements working simultaneously, the audio system needed to provide clear, consistent coverage throughout the historic building without competing visually with its architecture. Electrosonic worked with 1 SOUND to develop a system capable of delivering presence and intimacy throughout the audience areas while maintaining discreet visual integration.
Audio designed for a historic space
Working within a historic building presented specific requirements for loudspeaker placement and mounting. The system needed to provide wide coverage and sufficient throw while preserving the visual character of Old South Meeting House.
Electrosonic utilized 1 SOUND Tower cardioid line array columns to address these requirements. The Tower system provides the necessary throw and wide dispersion for the space while maintaining a discreet visual presence. A combination of mains, delays and fills helps create consistent coverage and a sense of presence throughout the audience areas.
The main system uses Tower LCC84 loudspeakers, while Tower LCC44 loudspeakers are used as side fills. Flush-mounted Level L35 loudspeakers are deployed as surround fills throughout the room and toward the rear, while C4 loudspeakers provide additional coverage for the balcony.
For low-frequency reinforcement, SUB28 subwoofers were installed at the front left and right of the space, adding depth to the music and sound effects that accompany the projections and storytelling.
Designed to support the story
Ruckus! combines projected animations, lighting, recorded voices, sound effects and music to tell its story. The audio system therefore needed to do much more than provide background sound. It needed to ensure that every element of the immersive multichannel soundtrack could be heard clearly throughout the space and reproduced in accordance with the creative storytelling design, without visually interfering with the content.
The distributed multichannel design approach maintains consistency from the main floor through the surrounding audience areas and balconies, ensuring the experience remains consistent regardless of where visitors are positioned.
The result is an audio system that guides the audience's attention and provides the clarity and presence required for the experience, while allowing the historic architecture to remain one of its central elements.
Solving sound for a space like ours—a space that needs to maintain its architectural and historical integrity, and that was not designed for modern sound systems—is a tall order. 1 SOUND worked with us to create a state-of-the-art multichannel system that sounds incredible and is practically invisible. With our old system, there were parts of the building where it was difficult to hear someone speaking clearly because of the reverberation. Now, every seat is a good seat, whether it's for our new immersive show, a forum, a theater production or a concert. 1 SOUND has completely transformed the audio experience at our historic site, adds Matthew Wilding, Senior Director of Interpretation & Future Projects, Revolutionary Spaces.
Discreet integration and custom finish
Because Old South Meeting House itself is part of the visitor experience, the appearance of the technology was an important consideration for the project. The loudspeakers needed to integrate naturally into the historic surroundings rather than becoming visual focal points.
Through the 1 SOUND Custom Shop, 1 SOUND worked with Electrosonic and the client to identify an exact color match for the space. The custom finish allows the loudspeakers to blend more naturally into the environment while maintaining the performance required for the exhibit.
Ruckus! demonstrates how a carefully designed audio system can become an essential part of experiential storytelling. At Old South Meeting House, sound works alongside projection and lighting to place visitors inside a pivotal chapter of American history, while a discreet, distributed system helps ensure that the story reaches every part of the space.
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