PMC is providing what they say is "the ultimate large-scale Dolby Atmos audio system" for legendary musician Steven Wilson at the High End show in Munich next month. The artist, who has already been the show's ambassador, will share his extensive knowledge and experience of using immersive audio as a creative tool in his career as one of the world's leading songwriters, producers, and Grammy-nominated spatial audio mix engineers.
Steven Wilson will host a series of seminars throughout the four days of the High End show from 9th to 12th May, in which he will talk about his use of immersive audio in creating his music and as an in-demand remixer of classic works by other artists. Each presentation will include demonstrations of music from his latest album, The Harmony Codex, alongside other artists' mixes he has produced, including works by Tears for Fears, Ultravox and Roxy Music.
Commenting on the opportunity to present immersive/spatial audio to the audiophile audience in Munich, he says, "There are some people who are very sceptical about spatial audio, and yet they love stereo, to which my reply is, 'You like stereo, you like spatial'. When sound comes from more than one direction, it is, by definition, spatial." Wilson adds, "And, if you play them the right track, in the right context, you can convert them, which is why this event we're doing at the High End is so exciting. We're going to have an incredible system and interesting music. What's not to love when you hear your favourite music, and you are literally inside the music with the artist."
The system Wilson refers to will be installed by PMC specifically for these presentations. We are told that there will be a trio of class-leading BB6 XBD Active monitors, as used by the BBC, Metropolis, LP:ME Dubai and countless other studios, for the front left, centre and right channels. Surround and height duties will be undertaken by 14 models from the ci series, with the low frequencies handled by four of PMC's BST awesomely powerful professional-grade subwoofers.
This presents a great mix of the British speaker company's professional studio main-mix monitors and the ci series, which have become the reference for Atmos Music mixing to the point that Dolby uses them in their London Atmos Music studio. Moreover, PMC tells us that this will be the largest such installation undertaken by a company whose speakers are found in the world's foremost recording facilities. Additionally, the use of PMC's pro-audio and custom install (CI) speakers goes to prove that all the brand's speakers are voiced identically, from the smallest hi-fi speaker, the prodigy1 (the prodigy 5 really impressed us), or the largest studio monitors, the QB1 XBD-A. This "Studio to Home" approach ensures that music lovers get the same sound at home as in the studio.
Oliver Thomas, PMC's commercial director and head of design, told StereoNET:
This is a system unlike any other we have installed for a hi-fi event. It will provide the audiophile visitors to the High End an opportunity to experience immersive audio on a system unlike any they have heard before, just like the ones used in major commercial studios for Atmos mixing, giving them a taste of what is actually heard by the artists and producers. To be partnering with a musician of Steven's calibre is a real honour, and we know the presentations will be an eye-opener for many of the visitors, for whom immersive audio hasn't yet been featured in their listening experiences.
Steven Wilson's presentations will occur in room K1, foyer 1, at the MOC, Munich.
The timetable for the presentations is as follows:
9th May
11:00 - Intro to spatial audio + tracks from The Harmony Codex and others + Q&A
14:30 - Intro to spatial audio + tracks from The Harmony Codex and others + Q&A
10th, 11th May
11:00 - Intro to spatial audio + tracks from The Harmony Codex and others + Q&A
14:30 - Intro to spatial audio + tracks from The Harmony Codex and others + Q&A
16:30 - The Harmony Codex full album spatial audio playback + Q&A
12th May
11:00 - Intro to spatial audio + tracks from The Harmony Codex and others + Q&A
14:30 - The Harmony Codex full album spatial audio playback + Q&A
In addition to the immersive audio system, PMC will be exhibiting in room D106, atrium 3, where the flagship fenestria and new Active twenty5i series will be on demonstration.
Visit PMC for more information
Posted in: Hi-Fi | Industry | HiFi Show
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