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Specialty acoustic solutions

Categories: Arts and culture, Community

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Dreamworks Dragon Flight Theatre


high-performance spaces for hardworking professionals

Renowned for their educational, innovative, and engaging exhibitions, it was no surprise The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa teamed up with the Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI) to host DreamWorks Animation: The Exhibition.

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The Project

 

The four-month exhibition took visitors on an interactive journey from sketch to screen, showcasing over two decades of DreamWorks animations – including feature films such as Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon. With over 400 items on display, the exhibition focused on the process DreamWorks go through to bring their characters and stories to life. The highlight of this exhibition was the Dragon Flight Theatre, a 180-degree panoramic screening experience where participants could ‘ride’ on the back of ‘Toothless’ the dragon – a main character from the DreamWorks animated movie How to Train Your Dragon.

 

Autex worked closely with Te Papa to build a cinema that would enhance the experience for participants, without affecting the experience for other visitors in the exhibition space. Te Papa’s brief required an acoustic solution that absorbed sound from the cinema, whilst visually exciting visitors on their way in and out of the cinema. By working collaboratively with Te Papa’s design team, Autex was able to deliver an innovative and effective solution that brought a unique design element to the theatre.

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Additional info


The Solution

Great care was taken to mathematically model the acoustic performance of the space, which informed the level of acoustic absorption required and the boundaries of the design aesthetics. It was crucial that the space had a perfect sound profile to support the cinematic experience. Both Quietspace® Panel and custom Quietspace® 3D Tiles were employed to deliver superior acoustic absorption.

 

While designing the interior solution for the Dragon Flight Theatre a number of areas were considered:

  • Materials could be reused multiple times, meaning a non-adhesive fixing solution must be implemented
  • The design represented Te Papa’s innovative nature
  • Autex’s philosophy of sustainability – using recycled and recyclable non-toxic products – was upheld
  • The design embodied the true nature of Toothless the dragon, including his colour palette

 

It was important for Autex to capture the essence of the film and bring it to life in the theatre; drawing on the ‘real life’ dragons of this world, the mood board included snakes, lizards, and other reptiles. Four types of scales were selected, each with different dimensions, to provide a broad concept selection. These were then refined to one style by a select committee. Using custom made Quietspace 3D Tiles, Autex developed a technical solution that mimicked the natural form of snake scales, enlarged for visual and acoustic quality. Each individual scale was custom cut using a water cutter to ensure the end result was immaculate.


The Result

The “return to flat” style dragon scale tiles overlapped, creating an additional absorbing surface.  This multiplied the acoustic performance without employing thicker denser materials.  Having the ‘return to flat’ style dragon tiles allowed the tiles to be invisibly fixed to the wall without adhesive, which would allow future use in other exhibitions and locations.

 

Due to the fact that the Dragon Flight Theatre was placed in the centre of the exhibition, there was a lot of potential for sound spill out into the other areas of the exhibition so Quietspace Panel was also fixed to the ceiling as a secondary precaution to ensure the sound was confined within the theatre.  Head of Exhibitions and Collections for the ACMI, Russell Briggs commented “the acoustic experience within the theatre was superior to the one we had [in Melbourne] and the experience of having the sound fill the room and not have that reverberation, I thought created a superior viewing experience in the theatre […] If you combine that with the fact that Autex had gone the extra mile to create this really themed look and feel, it was a fantastic outcome for Te Papa”.