ACMI partners with Yamaha for The Story of the Moving Image exhibition

When ACMI in Melbourne, Australia commenced works on their $40m upgrade, Yamaha was chosen to provide audio solutions to various parts of the facility including ACMI’s new immersive exhibition – The Story of the Moving Image.

The Story of the Moving Image is the museum’s new centrepiece exhibition. A journey through the past, present and future of film, TV and video games, it is designed to evolve and respond and is packed with interactive experiences.

The audio for the old permanent exhibition had a tendency to make patrons feel harried. There were hotspots and if there was any excitement elsewhere it was very evident where you were standing — it is one large shared space, after all. The new audio design is a vast improvement. There’s a unified approach to the audio and indeed the lighting, thanks to Ben Kreukniet of BK Studio’s design, working with Arup for technical design advice.

A vast array of individually-addressable Yamaha VXC-series in-ceiling and pendant speakers fill the space, powered by 240 amplifier channels, all delivered by Yamaha XMV8280-D multichannel amplifiers.

ACMI’s project manager for the renewal work, Evan Davis, explains: “The sheer weight of content in the old exhibition with so many screens with local audio, it all became a bit overwhelming. There was a real push for the new audio design to be a bit more open, and for the pace to be slower, without sacrificing the breadth of content.

“The eight-channel Yamaha Dante-enabled amplifiers allowed us to realise our vision for the distributed audio design. All our playback sources are Dante enabled, it’s all feeding into our Dante system. It means we can push audio from any source to any destination and tweak levels and EQ. It changes the game in how you do audio in an exhibition like this."

“For example, I might want some audio from a certain media player that’s providing sound for a particular screen being reproduced in a loudspeaker some distance away just to add extra feel. Thanks to Dante and the Yamaha audio, that’s easily achievable.”

When corporate events and functions begin to return the set up means it’s easy to route a wireless microphone to as many loudspeakers as you need for the event. The flexibility is noteworthy.

Of the project, ACMI Director of Exhibitions and Touring, Chris Harris adds “We are filling our galleries with screens and interactives, showcasing the Story of the Moving Image in Australia, incorporating a spatial soundscape that stretches throughout the gallery and across hundreds of input and output channels.

“Working with Yamaha’s professional audio solutions team of experts in Melbourne has been a pleasure and will ensure a top-quality sound experience for our visitors in our new centrepiece exhibition”.