Germany - The ambitious In Motion – Art & Football exhibition at Dortmund’s German Football Museum celebrates The Beautiful Game through the medium of art, featuring works from 20th-century artists from around the world. Deploying high-powered projectors, LED displays and an advanced audio system with 25 Genelec Smart IP networked loudspeakers, the exhibition provides a richly immersive visitor experience.
23 UHD Epson projectors animate dynamic surfaces, complemented by film, photography and sound. Visitors move through three distinct zones, encountering features including a 22m Painter’s Palette floor projection and a 5.1 x 4.2m projected sketchbook. German integrators SIGMA System Audio-Visual were tasked with the complex AV design and installation.
“We’ve worked with the German Football Museum for over 10 years,” explains Christian Backes, SIGMA’s head of AV-Integration. “We provided the original AV and media systems. This is a long-term exhibition, but importantly, it’s designed so that when they choose a new theme, only the content needs changing – the core technology remains.”
A multi-layered audio system was essential to support the large space and numerous displays. Berlin-based LEM Studios and PBX Studios were responsible for the sound design and audio content production.
Markus ‘Hossi’ Hossack of LEM Studios served as lead sound designer, mixing audio in both the studio and onsite. Starting from a stereo soundtrack, Hossack worked to adapt it into a rich, immersive soundscape. “The idea was to get the whole place shaking,” he explains.
A powerful in-ceiling system provided full-range audio across the venue, but for immersive playback, the sound had to be more intimate. “For the immersive details the sound needed to get ‘up close and personal’ to the visitors,” says Hossack. To achieve this, 25 Genelec 4430A Smart IP loudspeakers were installed discreetly beneath the two large lateral projection walls, each 17.5m by 26.5m. The 4430s played individual audio elements, creating a spatialised mix where different speakers delivered different content depending on where visitors stood.
At one point in the show, classical waltz music filled the room via the ceiling system, while the Genelecs played isolated instrument parts. Subtle sound effects like footsteps, pencil sketches and raindrops were also localised to match visuals. “We wanted to create a ‘walkable cinema’,” says Hossack. “We wanted to contain the sound in different zones of audio, giving each visitor a unique listening experience.
“In the studio we mixed in Dolby Atmos and were able to prepare everything in 7.1.4,” he continues. “However, in the venue this had to be scaled up to incorporate all 50 loudspeakers. Managing the timing, routing and synchronisation was a real challenge, and we only had four days to put everything together - it was tight!”
Genelec’s Smart IP Manager software proved invaluable. “Given the short deadline, it was essential to work quickly, and Smart IP Manager enabled me to handle any filtering I wanted to do, as well as adding latency to each loudspeaker,” says Hossack. “We took the middle of the show as our zero and worked out from there to maintain the immersive effect, adjusting for latency as we went.”
Despite the tight timeline and technical complexity, Genelec’s Smart IP loudspeakers proved pivotal in shaping an immersive, memorable audio journey through art and football. With plans underway to tour the exhibition globally, the Smart IP system is seen as essential to making that possible. “The system can be installed or taken down in a fraction of the time of traditional systems,” concludes Hossack. “It’s the most versatile loudspeaker I know on the market.”