THE MONTREUXJazz Festival and the MetaMedia Center at Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have built a multimedia platform for playing the digitised media of the Montreux Jazz archive. The Montreux Jazz Heritage
Lab is a 7m x 8m room, referred to as ‘the cocoon,’ in which up to four people can experience over 5,000 hours of concerts recorded over the past 45 years. A parabolic screen surrounds the viewer, while a PSI Audio 10.1 sound system provides a 3D audio experience. The system consists of 10 A14-M speakers and an A225 subwoofer enhanced by a 3D illusonic AV processor envelope.
A PSI Audio 10.1 sound system surrounds you inside ‘the cocoon’ 1,300
pieces of wood used to build the room
“It is not just a normal sound. The sound envelops you. You are into the image, into the sound,” said Claude Nobs, founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival. The room is built of 1,300 pieces of wood assembled together, acoustically designed by EPFL’s Hervé Lissek. A touchscreen control panel allows the viewer to select the concert or songs to be played, as well as displaying information about the selection. The digitisation of the
Montreux Jazz archives is an ongoing process, undertaken by Montreux Sounds in partnership with EPFL, with approximately 40% of the 10,000+ performances digitised so far. The festival has requested that UNESCO have its archives added to the organisation’s ‘Memory of the World’, which aims to protect the world’s intangible heritage. The request coincided with the launch of the first ever International Jazz Day in April of this year. n metamedia.epfl.chwww.psiaudio.com
P A R TYLINE Take the Stage
The HelixNet Partyline intercom was created to perform on the big stage. Reliable and durable to withstand the most demanding productions, the rugged beltpacks provide access to two of four intercom channels over a single standard microphone cable. HelixNet leverages existing cable infrastructures—no rewiring required. It can also integrate with other communication systems over two- or four- wire interfaces.