SPECTACULAR WATER SHOW UNVEILS ANCIENT INDIAN WISDOM WITH RHAON-EQUIPPED, WEATHERIZED RENKUS-HEINZ 10.1 SURROUND SYSTEM.
Every day at Swaminarayan
Akshardham Gandhinagar Openair
Amphitheater in Gujarat, India,
a brilliant 45-minute spectacle
unfolds after sunset.
The Sat-Chit-Anand Water Show,
produced by BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha
(BAPS) in a technical and creative collaboration
with French creative agency ECA2,
is a new addition to the Swaminarayan
Akshardham complex in Gandhinagar, the
capital city of Gujarat. It opened on April
3, 2010 with a live TV broadcast and a VIP
audience.
'Sat' means Truth, 'Chit' means
Consciousness and 'Anand' means Bliss:
Consciousness of the Ultimate Truth, leading
to the experience of Eternal Bliss. The
show reveals this ancient secret of India
through the gripping Upanishadic story of
Nachiketa, a 9 year old boy who bravely
confronts Yamaraj, the god of death,
and receives from him the knowledge of
immortality and eternal happiness.
It is the world's first water show created to
convey a spiritual message through a fusion
of lasers, lights, water, fire, sound, animation,
video projection and live characters.
A Renkus-Heinz loudspeaker system
was chosen to provide the audio delivery
to match the visual imagery, to an outdoor
amphitheatre audience that typically fills
its 2,200 seats up to twice a day, a mixture
of Hindu and non-Hindu visitors including a
sizeable tourist contingent keen to experience
at first hand a recounting of ancient
Indian wisdoms.
The show's elements include a 130 ft
wide and 60 ft tall water screen, 44,000
lumens of video projection, multicolor laser
projections and a 10.1 surround sound
system – Renkus-Heinz powered. The liquid
action also involves 4000 water nozzles, 118
pumps, 2000 lights, 10 multidimensional
water nozzles, 12 fire balls and 500 sq ft of
fire on water.
It begins with a mystical introduction to
India's cultural and spiritual glory using
colorful combinations of water, lasers and
lights.
The narrator then introduces the
story of Nachiketa - a fearless and determined
9 year old boy who has been an
inspiration to the countless generations of
children of India since ancient times.
This outdoor installation, where daytime temperatures can reach 45°C / 113°F, includes PN102/LA line arrays, DR18-2R subwoofers, a ST5M2 and ST5LR combination for the 'voice of God', and PN121s and PN151s for surround sound. The configuration creates a 10.1 surround sound system.
Live
actors play the roles of Nachiketa and his
father, Uddalak Rishi, and take the audience back 10,000 years to the time of Vedic
India. Nachiketa travels to the land of death
when Uddalak, angered by his son's persistent
questioning, sends him to Yamaraj.
Nachiketa arrives in the land of death and
has to wait for three days before he meets
the god of death.
Projected on a 60 foot high water screen,
Yamaraj creates thunderstorms, volcanoes,
fire and tornadoes to scare the little
boy by his powers of destruction. The rest
of the story (we won't reveal the plot) is
depicted by lasers, video projections, lights
and water fountains – and concludes with
a grand finale celebrating the joys of life,
presented by an impressive combination of
fountains, lasers, lights, sound and fire.
BAPS Technical Director Vipul Vaghela explains that the complex opened in 1992
and in the years since "we were thinking
about adding one attraction into that, and
since everything there has a meaning, we
wanted to create an attraction which is for
education plus entertainment, and leaves
a long-lasting impression of that message.
The story is about a way to get an everlasting
happiness, and that story very much
suited a water show type of attraction. We
used the best, most modern, technology to
deliver the message for an eternal truth.
And when we presented it to our committee
they liked the idea, and we got the
go-ahead for this project."
The show is, he
emphasizes, aimed at the broadest possible
audience.
"We selected Renkus-Heinz," he says,
for two reasons. Number one: the faithful
reproduction of the sound, even at the high
gain that was very crucial for us. Our music
is very difficult and it uses a wide variety of
instruments. So if those instruments are
not faithfully reproduced by the speaker
system half of the charm of the music
would be lost.
We found Renkus-Heinz
loudspeakers exceeded our expectations in
that respect. Another technical factor was
the loudspeakers' non-intrusive looks and
integrated CobraNet/RHAON.
"Secondly, which we appreciate very
much, is that the company understands the
non-profit cause of our organization and
they have supported us by giving us exceptional
service from the time of the first
demonstration right through to final installation
and commissioning."
He adds: "The biggest challenge was
to generate uniform distribution of sound
pressure level without speakers becoming
a visual intrusion to the show elements.
The speakers needed to be as inconspicuous
as possible and as low in height as
possible. The second challenge was to have
speakers that could withstand the harsh
environment they would be exposed to, as
this is an outdoor installation, and the average
summer temperature in the area is
around 42° C/ 107° F, or on an extreme day,
45° C/ 113° F. Another major challenge was
to use the best audio delivery system to the
loudspeakers, which are in an electrically
harsh environment."
A team of engineers from Renkus-Heinz
and BAPS worked very closely to come
up with the ground stacked line array to
generate a uniform SPL throughout the
sitting area.
Renkus-Heinz suggested
using its PN Series line arrays which can
deliver enough power and are weatherresistant
even in such a harsh environment.
CobraNet was selected as the transport
mechanism for the audio signals to these
self-powered speakers which further
provided easy loudspeaker management
using RHAON.
The system design was configured as
nine PN102/LA-WR (Weather Resistant)
line array cabinets, four DR18-2Rs subwoofers, a combination of ST7/64R and
two ST5LR cabinets for the 'voice of God'
and PN121s and PN151s for surround
sound, the entire system creating a 10.1
surround sound system.
Vipul Vaghela concludes: "BAPS is very satisfied
with the installation – the sound is excellent
and all the technical challenges have been
met with help of the whole team."
