360° L-ISA Immersive Audio Technology Powers Innovative Time in a Bottle Exhibition at Hong Kong’s Freespace WestK 360° L-ISA Immersive Audio Technology Powers Innovative Time in a Bottle Exhibit...
Permanent L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound installation at The Box theatre enables avant-garde fusion of classical music and visual art
HONG KONG, China – February 2025 – The Box Theatre at Freespace WestK has unveiled an innovative multisensory exhibition that showcases its permanent L-ISA immersive audio system. Time in a Bottle, created by award-winning Hong Kong music composer Leon Ko, transforms a collection of rare perfume bottles into an artistic journey that seamlessly blends visual art with live classical performances.
The Box, Hong Kong’s largest black box theatre, can host 950 standing or 450 seated guests. It features a comprehensive L-ISA immersive audio installation designed to meet the venue’s diverse programming needs. The system includes two arrays of L-Acoustics ARCS, over 30 X8 speakers for surround and height configurations, and L-Acoustics Syva for front-fill and reinforcement of a live classical music sextet.
For Time in a Bottle, renowned sound designers Ha Yan-pui and Jeffrey Yue (Ctrl Fre@k) collaborated to leverage the venue’s L-ISA capabilities, creating an immersive audio soundscape for a classical sextet. Their approach focused on achieving natural acoustic reinforcement while maintaining modern production values.
Ha, an award-winning sound designer, was eager to harness The Box’s L-ISA technology to present Ko’s artistic vision. “We knew we could leverage the venue’s pre-installed L-Acoustics main, surround, and height system configurations to deliver rich spatial audio that would envelop the audience, especially during the show’s live performance.”
“We wanted to achieve a natural-sounding immersive mix instead of something jaw-droppingly surreal,” explains Yue. “The L-ISA technology allowed us to maintain accurate sonic perspective throughout the space, particularly crucial given the theatre’s long, narrow configuration and seated audience arrangement.”
The exhibition alternates between live performances that weave a narrative through the collection of thematically decorated perfume bottles, live performances of the sextet (two violins, viola, cello, oboe, and piano) backed by video projections that highlight each bottle’s unique artistic significance, and gallery viewing sessions when visitors can explore the exhibition at their own pace accompanied by headphones which feature a binaural mix created directly from the L-ISA engine.
L-ISA technology allowed the team to present the sextet’s sound as if it were in a naturally familiar concert hall environment. “Usually, for classical music and the theatrical application as well, you’d want to reinforce the sound of the instrumentalists with a natural emphasis on audio imaging,” explains Yue.
This successful implementation has encouraged The Box’s technical team to expand their use of L-ISA technology. “We’ve shown that immersive audio can be presented in more ways than one,” Ha notes. “Our creativity and imagination will continue to develop more interesting ideas with the technology.”
The installation was supported by L-Acoustics Certified Provider Rightway Audio Consultants (RAC), whose Hong Kong team provided comprehensive training to Freespace’s technical staff, ensuring optimal spatial audio delivery for all productions.
Both Ha and Yue feel that the exhibition has led the team at Freespace to look forward to more immersive audio presentations. “Understanding immersive audio is easy for sound designers. But non-audio professionals—such as directors, producers, or even the audience—need more convincing about the benefits of immersive audio. This is because they only fully grasp its value when they experience object localization and movement firsthand,” explains Ha.
“I think with Time in a Bottle, we’ve proved that immersive audio can be used in many ways, and we’ll be able to expand our creativity and imagination and deliver a broad range of immersive audio experiences for theatrical performances in the future,” Yue concludes.
For more information on Freespace WestK, please visit www.westk.hk/en/venue/freespace
Learn more about Rightway Audio Consultants at www.racpro.net
Press release assets are found by clicking here.