IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES
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environments. That’s why tools like D&B’s Soundscape are so exciting. It’s not just about noise; it’s about emotional tone.” A PERSONAL INSIGHT Elvis Evolution remains, at its heart, a story-driven experience. The narrative follows Presley’s journey not just as a bullet-point history, but as a personal rediscovery, all viewed through the eyes of his childhood best friend Sam Bell. “Sam was 12 when he met Elvis in Tupelo,” Pirie explains, “and they were incredibly close. Sam sadly passed away a few years ago, but before that he talked often about what those years meant to him – and to Elvis. We’ve used his voice as our narrative lens.” It’s been a successful decision for the installation, grounding the experience in the perspective of a child. It evolves as Bell grows into an adult whose life takes a very different direction to Presley’s. This allows audiences to see a more intimate side to the King of Rock and Roll.
museums. But now, as the tech has evolved, the boundaries are falling away. “Why can’t I have the emotional punch of theatre, the spectacle of cinema and the interactivity of games, all in one?” That philosophy is similarly central to Layered Reality’s ethos. “We tend to be driven by the creative desire first,” Reveley says, “and then we find the best technologies to deliver that. But, working at the scale we are with Elvis, there’s going to be a wow factor, which comes from combining talent and technologies across disciplines.” Asking Pirie what his go-to AV tool is for delivering any kind of immersive performance, for him the answer is easy. “Honestly? I’ve always been a sound person,” he admits. “There’s a sequence in The War of the Worlds where we turn the lights off and just have a pitch-black audio experience. It does something to the imagination that no visual ever can. “Sound is often underappreciated, but it’s so crucial. Especially in immersive
One and Layered Reality, and why they were the obvious choice for this job. “I’ve worked with them for the last 30 years of my career, on a number of different projects, and the minute they started to see solutions to the challenges we had with this project, we knew we had to get them on board. “They’ve got an incredible pedigree – they can fabricate just about anything you might think of. Most importantly, they’re specialists on the automation side of things. When it comes to moving set work around – they’re your guys.” WHY IMMERSIVE? Layered Reality is no stranger to large-scale immersive experiences. Its earlier production The War of the Worlds broke fresh ground by intertwining VR, live actors and interactive storytelling into a seamless narrative. “For a long time,” Pirie notes, “different mediums had to be boxed in for their own audience: film, games, theatre,
The narrative follows Presley from childhood through to stardom, using his friend Sam Bell as an anchor
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