POLYGON LIVE

AN IMMERSIVE AUDIO-VISUAL EXPERIENCE BUILT AROUND L-ACOUSTICS L-ISA SYSTEM, POLYGON IS AIMING TO MAKE 360° SOUND THE STANDARD. TPMEA CHECKS IN WITH CEO, NICO ELLIOT AHEAD OF THE COMPANY’S MIDDLE EAST DEBUT AT MDLBEAST SOUNDSTORM.

How did the idea for Polygon Live come about? It was born through a collection of soundobsessed friends. We’ve been very keen on the quality of sound at events for a long time, and we thought this typical left and right listening experience had to develop. I remember hearing quadraphonic sound – which I guess was an early form of immersive – and thinking that surely this could be developed further.

We always had our ears to the ground for technology that would allow that to happen, and when L-Acoustics developed its L-ISA technology, we saw this as the perfect solution. While it was designed primarily for a frontal system, we approached L-Acoustics and asked whether it was possible to use it in a circular environment – and the simple answer was ‘yes’.

How did it develop from there? When L-Acoustics said it was possible, we created a system and took it to Wonderfruit Festival in Thailand. In the first year, we did a rudimentary system around 20m in diameter, and everything was pre-recorded, with a few five-minute spatialised sound experiences. Even without using the technology in any meaningful way, the feedback we had was very exciting. The environment of being inside the dome was a real point of difference for the audience.

That first experience sparked everyone’s excitement, so our next focus was on bringing artists into the studio and spending time helping them create music designed to utilise the system better. On a typical stereo setup, you can only add certain layers because there are only two stacks to play them out of and it starts to sound messy if you bring too much in. However, when you’ve got 86 speakers to play with, you can position all kinds of sounds in different places, and you can control a lot more.

What other elements do you incorporate into the overall experience? Visual System is a talented team of French lighting designers and architects, which has put together a very cool LED superstructure that sits on top of the truss. We now use around 1km of LED tubing, and the LED is programmed and synchronised to the sound.

We have also added aroma elements to the show, and we have a partner who is cooking up lots of interesting scents using sound waves to extract high quantities of certain compounds to create incredible smells such as sage, lavender, myrrh, and frankincense. We have smoke pumps all the way around the structure, and we release scents at times throughout the set.

Where can the technology go from here? Our goal is to take this as far as it can possibly go. We would like to spend a lot more time in the studio with artists over the next year, so they can understand and explore what is possible with the technology. The more events we do and the more we work with artists, the more exciting it gets. We’d also love to integrate more live bands and vocals into the stage. We’ve got percussion at MDLBEAST this year.

There’s a long way for it to go and a lot of development that will take place. There’s also a lot of product development going on at L-Acoustics, which we will feed into what we’re doing. We’d like to do something in the UK next year and we’re also very excited about Saudi Arabia and looking forward to seeing where the journey leads. Photos: Polygon Productions www.polygon-productions.com