LOS ANGELES – Pro Sound CA installed L-Acoustics loudspeakers and amplifiers for Universal Studios Hollywood's new attraction, King Kong 360 3-D, Created by Peter Jackson. KIVA loudspeakers are used to help transport visitors to Skull Island, where the giant ape battles dinosaurs.
The new King Kong attraction, with video and 22-channel sound design created by Weta Digital and Park Road Post, replaces the similarly-themed ride that was lost to a fire in 2008. Pro Sound CA was chosen based on work that it had done previously for Universal Studio's technical manager, Paul Cuoco.
"He requested that we bid on this project," said Arron Szabo, vice president of Pro Sound CA. "The creative and technical service teams dictated that the loudspeakers must be visually unobtrusive, capable of producing good levels and fidelity at a distance and not be self-powered for ease of serviceability. With that in mind, we ran a number of Soundvision models and ultimately recommended an L-Acoustics system comprised of compact KIVA and KILO enclosures augmented by SB28 subs."
When entering King Kong 360 3-D aboard the Studio tour, guests don 3-D glasses while surrounded on both sides by a custom pair of 187-foot-long compound curved screens that stand 40 feet tall. Evenly spaced out just above the top edge of each screen are three loudspeaker clusters comprised of a single KILO low-frequency extension cabinet with two ultra-compact KIVA line source systems mounted just below it.
On the bottom edges of the screens, five identical clusters are spread out on each side. For ample LF reproduction, a single SB28 enclosure is positioned at the two lower corners of each screen. All systems are powered by L-Acoustics' LA4 and LA8 amplified controllers.
"We had used KIVA in another project a few years ago and they performed really well," Szabo recalled. "They're extremely small, capable of high SPLs, and the fidelity is phenomenal, especially considering that the upper arrays on this attraction are flown nearly 60 feet high. Despite the distance, two KIVA and one KILO per location was more than sufficient to meet the required decibel level and coverage requirements."
For more information, please visit www.l-acoustics.com .
