BRIAN LAURENCE SOUND: PD-6 in Botswana

I almost couldn’t believe it when the PD-6 came out – it fitted exactly into the 6-channel full-surround audio format I first developed for the Australian Pavilion at EXPO 92 in Seville, Spain.

The Pavilion featured a large, full-surround cinema with 6 screens linked seamlessly around 360 degrees. I used 6 Sennheisser 416 mics, each covering 60 degrees of the horizontal field, and recorded to 3 DAT machines. The 6-channel soundfield worked better than anything else I have ever experienced. The sound anywhere within the circle of 6 replay speakers is near to the ultimate in sound reproduction, maintaining all the spatiality of the original locations. It has to be experienced to fully understand the purity of a fully phase coherent 360 degrees multi-speaker soundfield.

I made surround recordings all round Australia for the Expo project, and have since also used the system in Hong Kong and Taiwan on surround projects.

Last year I was working on a new Lions section for the Werribee Open Range Zoo on the outskirts of Melbourne, and the project design required original footage and sound to be captured on location in Botswana. As there was to be a Savanna Grasslands Maze in the new displays, I specified a surround soundscape, and the 6-channel system for recording. And I heard about the PD-6, so hired a fully-kitted out unit from John Rowley (including Port-a-brace, 6 x Lithium Ion batteries, Pelican roadcase). John loaned me the machine to thoroughly test beforehand, and, as I couldn’t fault it, off I went, with only the sound recording capability of the video camera as backup.

It all worked perfectly, under reasonably extreme conditions of heat, dust and bumpy vehicle tracks. The ability to ‘pre-record’ was great for nature recording, where you can wait hours for a single lion roar – it takes some getting used to, recording from ten seconds before you push record!

The ability to download the files from DVD-RAM to computer via Firewire proved an extremely efficient way to transfer back in the mixing suite. All my post production is now done on Steinberg’s Nuendo software, which handled the 6-channel interleaved Broadcast Wave files easily.

I have since used the system at last year’s semi and grand final football matches in Melbourne to capture the sounds of 93,000 footy fans going crazy – quite an experience in itself, but even better as a recording, especially from the middle of the ground as the players run on at the start!

It’s interesting to note that the current infatuation with theatre and home theatre surround sound is pretty tame compared to the true surround sound I’ve been working with for the last 12 years! However, the 6-channel format also fits easily into the Dolby Digital 5.1 format, providing rich, involving true-to-life atmospheres for just about any scene. In fact, it’s interesting to note that most TV productions still don’t use proper surround atmospheres.

Brian Laurence
BRIAN LAURENCE SOUND




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