Martin Audio Takes Active Role In Japan's First Immersive Outdoor Music Festival

Hoshioto Camp 23, which took place recently at Budou Romankan in the Japanese Prefecture of Okayama became the first outdoor music festival in Japan to introduce immersive sound.
Unlike with conventional left and right proscenium-type speaker systems, each sound uttered by the artists on stage could be heard from wherever they were standing just as if they were positioned onstage—thus creating a deep sense of immersion.

Local sound rental company, Bright Co. Ltd. originally invested in Martin Audio’s award-winning WPC fully optimised system back in 2020. Therefore, when it was time to upgrade the event’s main speaker system, WPC was recommended as the perfect overall fit for its sound quality, controllability and sense of scale, after evaluation against other systems.

Kazuyuki Oshita, president of Bright Co. Ltd. said there were other reasons why he recommended it to the organisers, notably its ability to deliver consistency of sound right across the area, and to mitigate against noise pollution by being able to contain the energy uniquely within the sound field—one of the award-leading properties of Martin Audio’s proprietary DISPLAY control software.

The 16 principal WPC boxes were powered by Martin Audio’s multi-channel iK42 amplifiers, and to create the full immersion an end-to-end Martin Audio solution was specified, including eight XD15, four SX218 subwoofers, six XP12 and various XE300, and ADORN A55 enclosures.

Various other local rental suppliers, introduced to the main contractors by Martin Audio Japan, also tapped into their inventories to complete the complement required, which also included SPAT Revolution processing. These included Super 4; Music Reserve; Freeway and Network Papa.

Review notices couldn't have been more positive. One stated: "Of course the sound in front of the stage was powerful, but I felt it sounded good even from a distance.” Another said, “I've participated in Hoshioto at least five times, including camps, and the sound was the best ever."

All agreed that the '3D' billing was fully justified and that the experience of Hoshioto Camp 23 for the several hundred who attended had been genuinely unique.
In addition to customer feedback, the organisers also remarked on how effective Wavefront Precision had been in reducing sound leakage into the neighbourhood, while Martin Audio Japan described the entire experiment as being "100% successful", and that the deployment had succeeded on every level.

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