PARABOX
Parabox is an immersive sound adventure which aims to provide a new experience to the audiences by utilizing spatial sound technology (or 360-degree sound) combined with multi-track guided theater which will allow the audiences to immerse by being the character within the story as the first-person point of view. This is a Capstone project by students of the Technology and Creative Innovation program, CMKL University Thailand as part of their Master of Science in Technology and Creative Innovation degree. The following academic report will be divided into four parts: background research, conceptualization, Storytelling & Character Design, Productions, and Results of the capstone throughout these 4 semesters where our founding and team members have been working together from September 2021 to December 2022. Parabox has launched an event on December, 4 - 5, 2022 at Red Clay Studio for the public as the proof of concept which the result will be discussed at the end of this blog.
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
The spatial sound is one of the newest audio technology. In 2020, Apple announced that Spatial Audio,
with support for Dolby Atmos, will be added to the Apple Music which will bring
“industry-leading sound quality to subscribers” where “Spatial Audio gives artists the opportunity
to create immersive audio experiences for their fans with true multidimensional sound and clarity.”
The spatial sound helps create a realistic experience by not limiting the sound to be heard from left or right, but instead, allowing the sound to move all around (thus, 360 degree) within the audience’s ear. This will open up human’s sensory through listening to the sound coming from 360 degree direction that can (closely) imitate what happens in reality, thus, creating an immersive experience. With this technology, it is possible to bring a different vision of participating in
a theater performance into one’s ear, where the audience could experience a suitable story from the first-person perspective. Additionally, Spatial Sound can be combined with the head tracking technology where the sound
would stay at their positions even though the audience’s head turns in different directions. This would help creating
even more realistic experience. For example, imagining you are in the forest and hearing the birds chirping
to your right ear. Once you have turned right, the sound of bird would come directly to your face as if you are looking straight to the birds. However, the head tracking technology will not be part of this capstone project,
but could be utilized in the future.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 “Apple Music Announces Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio,” Apple Newsroom, May 17, 2021,
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/.2Ibid.
A guided theatre is a way to direct the theatrical experience that allows the audience to immerse themselves
with the performance from a given or chosen character. Combining this with the spatial audio technology, it is possible
to minimize the space and maximize the number of audience within one shared space. Furthermore, it is also possible to provide more characters for the audience to choose from, thus, creating an opportunity for the audience to experience the story from different perspectives, where one character only experience one angle of the story.
All of this happens through listening. In this report, this style of storytelling is called a ‘Multi Guided’ theatre.
