Peter B. Lewis is a veteran sound designer specializing in multi-source media and complex environmental designs. Since the late 1980's, Peter has exploited sound opportunities in retail environments, museums and sophisticated multilevel tradeshow exhibits. He pioneered the use of multi-zonal evocative audio atmospheres in retail environments at the legendary, bar-setting Nike Town stores of 1990s . Learn More about me.

Impossible is Nothing!

  By Peter B. Lewis

The adidas Showcasing Center on the Olympic Green at the 2008 Olympiad in Beijing

Walk Through: adidas

When you enter through the glass doors, you feel the rush of cool air, a sudden change from the 90+ degrees outside. You hear nice pleasant Lobby music from speakers above - and from somewhere in the distance you hear a strong beat.

You follow the line into a darkened Tunnel where you hear a powerful heartbeat. The authentic heartbeat sound is at competition heartbeat rates from about 85 to over 145 bpm. As you move along your journey, racquet sounds and shoe squeaks of tennis and badminton matches blend with backlit super-graphics. The images weren't finalized until about a week before the opening, so I built these sound atmospheres (and more) in my Beijing apartment studio.

Quite a bit of postproduction happened in my Beijing apartment studio. I had a MacPro with Logic and a portable ProTools rig in my 27 th floor apartment overlooking the Birds Nest stadium.

Leaving the Tunnel, you encounter a stadium crowd and you are immersed in the sound of a huge cheering crowd.

Then, you walk through a Time Tunnel of memorable Olympic moments from Jessie Owens in 1934 through the 2004 Games. The musical atmosphere in this area is a relaxed and contemplative sub-mix of the Entry Lobby track. On leaving the Time Tunnel, you ascend a spiral stair, accompanied by a brass and choral choir, a different sub-mix of the Lobby musical score.

On the upper deck, exhibits show special outfits designed by adidas to improve performances in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Made for Beijing . You see graphics of athletes using the newly designed equipment. The music here on the upper deck is much livelier.

As you leave the Made For Beijing exhibit, you walk through a narrow passage, attracted by a very excited cheering crowd. The charcoal grey mural of cheering fans and the sounds provide an "experiential sorbet" - we want you to be fully open to the experience that lies ahead. Incidentally, from the Entry to this point in your self-guided tour, you've walked through seven distinct display areas, each with a unique sound zone!

Coming out of the narrow passage, you walk down a spiraling ramp, six-feet wide. Looking to the left, across the 30-ft diameter spiral, you see dramatic moving images on three-foot tall bands of high-resolution LED panels. Music comes from everywhere!

As you descend the ramp, you pass through six different music zones: this remix is designed to give you the sense of walking down the spiral Ramp through the zones to the floor of the Spiral Theater.

The Theater Mix is an emotive and powerful, large orchestration with kickin' drums, bass and a wicked (though tasteful) solo electric guitar. The music expresses all the emotions of the Olympic journey: the inspiration, the striving, the failure, the struggle, the defeat and the victory - all wrapped up in three and a half minutes, with room at the end for a wonderful logo! It's quite the mini symphony.

Looking across the Spiral Theater and through to the Int'l Broadcast Center across the street.

The heart of the musical ambience for the adidas pavilion is the Spiral Theater soundtrack, which you hear in the distance as you enter the pavilion, and the Spiral Theater is last thing you experience on your journey through the 15,000 sq. ft. exhibit hall.

There were 28 discrete source tracks, some stereo, some mono, 30 channels of EQ, and more than three dozen amp channels feeding 130 speakers. Once the system was properly balanced, it sounded awesome! I was dancing up and down the ramp!! Click here for a stereo remix of the Ramp Tracks.The unique acoustic effects of cylinders is always enchanting to me. Here we used the natural leakage and reflections throughout the space to create dramatic effects which could only be fully appreciated on-site in the pavilion. Notice for example, we have the audience walk along the Ramp around the outside of the Theater, there is a three feet clear opening for viewing (and sound seepage). In the Theater, the volume was solid (loud) and the soundtrack was produced as a true 360 degree immersion - of course, strong bass fed the subwoofers. This all wafted out and blended with the localized zones along the Ramp. The Theater soundtrack also bled out through the entire exhibit space. For me, the overall effect was to experience my own unique and ever-changing space in a vast ocean of media.

ABOUT THE GEAR:

One of the major challenge points was getting the appropriate speakers and playback systems for the exhibits. Typically, companies renting sound gear have monster-sized speaker arrays to do big stage shows and outdoor PA systems - "blasters" I call them. We met with a dozen vendors in Beijing and Shanghai. Several would not even bid on the projects because our specs were so unusual. In the end, a company was found who would provide the kinds of speaker and amplifier systems necessary for created environmental and theatrical experiences we designed.

The local Beijing sound company took us to their warehouse and showed us the gear, then the came with the wrong gear three times. After another round of arm waiving, they showed up with the right stuff. They installed it quickly and made needed changes as they came up. We spoke no Chinese and they no English, we communicated through translators and simple pictures. The complex sound system was confusing them and last minute changes added to the chaos. In the end, the job got done perfectly and well ahead of schedule.

ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE:

A nd it was a huge success. In the words of Beatrix C. Frisch, adidas China , Project Manager Olympic Experiential Events: "Excellent. many thanks for a truly exceptional experience. As I moved up and down the ramp, I passed through the six different music mixes playing through stationary speakers. Walking through the sound zones was fun and engaging. I never quite knew where it would take me next!"

It was a musical playground!"

A view of the Spiral Theater from ground floor. The effect of the wrap-around LED screens was dizzying, the immersive audio completed the experience.

Going to Beijing was as unlike going anywhere I've ever been. The one constant was the generosity and kindness of the people. Language was a potential challenge quite often. We always worked it out, through sign language, short words and a smile. Restaurants had picture menus with enough English to get the main ideas across. Many cabbies had English speakers available by cell phone - very resourceful.

There are thousands of sights to see, My friend and co-worker Alain got out and about for a couple of days. He brought back photos and told me of them. He spent part of a day in the Forbidden City on his bicycle. I just read the Forbidden City is to be restored with funds from the PRC and will be a UN World Heritage Site.

These were two really big projects - there are many stories. I have begun writing about my amazing Olympic Experience.

The lesson I re-learned in this experience is: we can all do far greater things than we have ever done. Carpe Diem - Seize the day!