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Genelec helps create immersive experience at Zukan Museum Ginza

Inspired by Shogakukan’s “Neo” series of picture books, the Zukan Museum Ginza in Tokyo fuses the digital and the real, offering an immersive and interactive journey to discover the natural world beyond time and space. Over 100 Genelec loudspeakers, combined with video technology, help drive the experience where natural environments of forests and water are seamlessly connected for a journey through the world of living things.

“The museum faithfully recreates the ecosystem of the natural world, with different creatures appearing in each area, such as the forest, savanna, underwater, etc., where the act of observing and recording the creatures is interactive”, says Jun Fujiwara of Invisi Ltd, who handled the sound production and UX design. “For example, if you get too close to a creature, it will be startled and run away.”

“The acoustical element is made up of three components: sounds produced by living creatures; background environmental sounds; and musical elements”, says Takashi Miyamoto of Coton Inc, who was responsible for implementing the audio system and sound design. “The environment changes according to the time of day, just as it does in the real world. The musical elements are generated using coton’s original music generation technology called ‘soundtope’ which automatically produces the most appropriate music based on the season and time of day.”

These three acoustical elements, with a total of 150 channels of sound, create different worlds in each of the multiple areas within the museum. There is no physical separation between areas, so it was particularly important to ensure that transitions from one area to another are smooth and coherent.

“In order to ensure seamless transitions between naturescapes, we used a common tonal scale between adjacent areas to prevent sounds from clashing with each other”, says Miyamoto. “Furthermore, in terms of timbre, the placement of intermediate common tones between areas has the effect of a boundary partition, like a sound curtain. Another acoustical issue that emerged was the panning system, which pans the sound produced by the creatures. The loudspeaker arrangements didn’t allow us to use existing panners, so we had to develop our own panning system.”

“As we wanted to prioritise the atmosphere of the museum, we tried to make the loudspeakers as invisible as possible”, says Fujiwara. “We explored various options, including high positions on the ceiling and gaps in the structure. This meant the loudspeakers had to be as small as possible, and when it came to the size/performance ratio, Genelec was the obvious choice.”

At the Zukan Museum, 85 compact 8010 active studio loudspeakers, 23 of the slightly larger 8020 models, and seven 7360 subwoofers were installed throughout the space. The 8010 is used widely throughout the museum, while the 8020 is used specifically for reproducing creature sounds which require more low-end. Genelec’s 8000-420 short wall mount and 8000-416 truss mount were both employed to achieve flexible installation tailored to the space.

(Photos: Genelec/Yashima Takashi/Zukan Museum Ginza)

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