Leake Street in London is Europe’s largest legal graffiti site. Eight former railway arches next to the famous graffiti tunnel are being regenerated into restaurants, bars and entertainment spaces that capture the essence of urban culture. One of these is Aures, a venue that uses technology to go beyond the conventional event space.
Sam Davis, frustrated at the poor audio quality at many venues, embarked on an uncompromising drive for the very best in sound and founded Aures, seeking a truly immersive audio experience for the musicians, artists, cinematographers and events companies that would use the venue. He chose Pioneer Pro Audio.
The positioning of the loudspeakers and crossover points is unusual at Aures because the subwoofers are in the middle of the room, but the frequency range of the bass units is nearer the higher frequencies, producing more harmonics and adding another dynamic to the system. A total of 50 boxes are installed around the room, sitting across three sound planes. Down the length of the room they sit in clusters of five, two XY-81s truss mounted approximately three metres from the floor, a single XY-115S in the centre and a two further XY-81s underneath. The XY-81s are two-way full range loudspeakers with an 8-inch LF driver and a one-inch compression driver, they also offer a wide dispersion of 90º by 60º.
Pioneer Pro Audio’s Alex Barrand said: “The setup is different to what other brands call immersive – it doesn’t lean on the DSP, using analogue fill instead, so the boxes are doing what they should be at the right time, creating a more real, natural response. The XY-81 has a one-inch driver, meaning the frequency response is a lot more natural, suiting Aures perfectly. Using a reflex loaded cabinet means everything is in line, which transpires to minimal delay from the configuration. It produces a more natural sound because you’re not delaying everything – the results speak for themselves.”
Powersoft M Series amplifiers power the system. They sit close to the loudspeaker clusters, minimising cabling and keeping things neat.
The brief at Aures was to create something unique – a new immersive experience. The team had no doubts about the products delivering. The only thing they had to modify were the subwoofers because at Aures they were flown and not typically designed for that, so bracketry was modified to accommodate their use in this way. The real challenge was to be innovative in the way the system achieved its aims.
Sam Davis said:”At Aures, it’s not about volume, it’s more about controlling sound. We can still created loudness, but it’s only 90dB, and the sound remains the same, no matter where you are in the venue. None of the other brands had that sonic immersion – Pioneer Pro Audio did everything right to help us achieve our goals.”
Aures have created a wide range of audio experiences – true stereophonic, soundstage, binaural and 3D audio – the listener is immersed in the purest sound quality. The space is now used by musicians, artists, cinematographers and event companies – all of whom make use of the immersive technology. Aures boasts the world’s first permanent 3D and true stereophonic sound system.
