Experience: Dialogue in the Dark, Hong Kong

• Features

• 07/12/2020

Hurrairah bin Sohail discovers how J-reamy Sound enriched the experience at Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong with an extensive and detailed Equipson audio system.

Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong brings patrons a novel ‘Dialogue Experience’ where they enjoy a meal in complete darkness. With the visual component removed, the venue unsurprisingly relies heavily on sound to enhance the experience. Integrator J-reamy Sound was engaged by Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong to ensure that the audio elements impressed.

George Luo, sound system designer at J-reamy Sound, talks about how the project commenced: “The client wanted an experience that was completely dark but at the same time brought a sense of ‘absolute reality’. With diners not having their sense of sight to guide them, the idea was to have an immersive sound system which could bring in details and add to the experience. Starting from these requirements, we tried to design a system that was as detailed as possible. Our reference for performance was Dolby Atmos, and we tried to incorporate the design guidelines as much as possible while accounting for the common challenge of space constraint when it comes to real estate in Hong Kong. The reason we didn’t go for a Dolby Atmos system is because we would not be able to fit it inside the Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong premises.”

Luo goes into further details regarding the space constraint and the impact it had on the design and deployment of the audio system: “The space at Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong is small and it was a challenge to deploy a large number of speakers for uniform coverage. So, the choice of the speaker became important. Of course, it had to deliver the performance we wanted but there were also design and budgetary considerations. We’ve worked with a lot of different audio brands over the years and for Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong we decided to use Equipson products which fit into the workflow and the design of our audio system and brought reliability and sound quality.”

In total, there are five zones of sound experience at Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong. Each zone is equipped with an Apple Mac Mini with the Qlab software platform serving as the input source for audio. Work Pro WPE44 processors and PA8150 amplifiers form the core of the extensive audio deployment. Work Pro Neo 3, Mino 6 and Z15 speakers provide audio output across the zones. Connectivity is provided via Work Pro DD4 interfaces. Audio is distributed via Dante with the help of Dante Virtual Soundcard.

The selection of the WPE44 was one that was made with respect to the requirements of the project. Luo says: “Without a good processor we would not be able to tune the sound. Basically, it is one of the most important components of the entire system and the only tool the system engineer has to shape the sound according to their preferences. When the shows are designed and the cues are set according to the artistic direction, the system needs to be able to accept and accommodate this and change the acoustic qualities of the speakers to match the direction. The WPE44 has enough headroom for Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong and to be honest we did not even max out its capabilities for this deployment, it is reliable, and it has PoE which was quite handy. Seeing that we were using Dante already, it fit in with the whole system really well and it allowed us to remotely manage the processor as well.”

It may seem like a lot of equipment has been packed into a small space, but the extensive audio deployment was required. Luo details: “A high channel count was needed because the client wanted the sound to be as detailed as possible and this meant that every speaker had to have its own dedicated channel. So, when you have one speaker deliver ambient, environmental audio it is playing on its own channel. In the smaller zones we have 30 speakers and in the larger zones this number can go up to 64.”

The high channel count also led Luo down the path of Dante for audio signal transmission. He explains: “I come from a theatre background. In most cases we use an audio interface like RME to take the source, usually software for playback, and convert it from digital to analogue. We seldom use Dante, unless it is a concert where we need to communicate between consoles. But for this project, we decided to go with Dante because the channel count was quite high. We maxed out the 64 channels available for the computer with Dante Virtual Soundcard and also maxed out the channel count in other areas.”

He continues: “At that moment, when we evaluated all the options available to us, RME was not possible. But Equipson provides two-channel and four-channel interfaces which are quite flexible and at an attractive price point so we decided to go down that route. The flexibility was a key component since the requirements and criteria for the project kept changing as the project progressed. With the smaller channel interfaces, we had the option to scale in increments and adapt to the needs of client.”

Luo concludes: “The eventual system we designed and deployed meets approximately 60% to 70% of the Dolby Atmos design guidelines. In some cases, we had to select different speakers or change the design due to the specific elements of the space but I think we were able to create a system that is comprehensive and achieved what the client wanted. I do have a lot of feedback from the user and they have run through a lot of scenarios. We are changing elements and improving the system as more data becomes available to us but on the whole they are very impressed with the sound and the system has been robust."