Sennheiser 2012 Annual Report Download - page 11

2120
RUBRIK
220 Hz 220 Hz
SURROUND SOUND
in phantasmagoric Bowie costumes. Outfits such as Japa-
nese designer Kansai Yamamoto’s Tokyo Pop and other
costumes inspired by Japanese samurai armor and Kabuki
theatre. Or the Union Jack frock coat created for Bowie by
Alexander McQueen. The star comes to life on the exhibi-
tion’s walls, cubes, old TVs and monitors. There are also
records, drawings, oil paintings, design sketches, a key to
Bowie’s apartment in Berlin and – doodled on graph paper
– his then unfinished text for “Heroes”: and we kissed as
though nothing could fall …
The V&A has created an absolutely unique sound
experience. “From the start, we knew that sound and video
were going to be extremely important,” says exhibit coor-
dinator Tom Grosvenor. That’s why Sennheiser was brought
on board: “We used
Sennheiser’s guide-
PORT system to deliv-
er huge amounts of
audio content without
creating a cacophony
of sound in the galler-
ies.” As the portable
wireless headphones take visitors on a journey spanning
several decades, they never lose track of where they are or
at what point in time. As they stand in front of the young
man who would become known as “Bowie,” for instance,
they are surrounded by one of his early songs, ‘When I Live
My Dream.’ The audio guide doesn’t just play music, but
also plays excerpts from interviews and provides addition-
al information. With the guidePORT, visitors can tour the
exhibition at their own pace and plot their own course.
Says Norbert Hilbich of Sennheiser Application Engineer-
ing: “Even though the tour is completely automated, it is
very individual.”
Shortly after Zielinsky has the Sennheiser systems
go live, more than 600 international journalists begin filing
their stories on the multimedia event. “The most striking
thing about the show is that it is brought to life by tech-
nology and united in sound and vision in a way rarely seen
in a museum,” raves The New York Times. Sennheiser tech-
nology and expertise has been fundamental to the “im-
mersing audio experience” created by the exhibit design-
ers. Walking round the galleries, one has the feeling that
“Ziggy Stardust and the Diamond Dogs” have been
brought back to life.
e1. Equalizer: Zielinsky makes fi-
nal adjustments. a2. Mobility:
The guidePORT system beams the
Bowie sound into listener’s ears.
g3. Popular: No exhibition at
the V&A was more enthusiastically
received.
e1. English earthling: For his 1997
album “Earthling,” Bowie posed
in a Union Jack coat designed by
Alexander McQueen.
Original photography for the “Earthling” album cover, 1997 – ® Frank W Ockenfels 3