MultiHub Forum

I’ve been tasked with creating a small, immersive audio installation for a historic lighthouse that’s being converted into a maritime museum, with a budget under €800 and a three-week timeline. The challenge is that the space is a single, circular stone room about six meters in diameter with a domed ceiling, and the museum board has forbidden any permanent fixtures or alterations to the historic fabric. I want to simulate the sound of the original foghorn and creaking machinery, but the acoustics are incredibly live and unpredictable, and my initial test with a portable 4-channel speaker system created a muddy, echoing mess that obscured the subtle layers I recorded. I’m stuck on how to design a temporary, directional soundscape that feels spatially accurate without using mounted speakers or digital projection mapping, which they’ve also vetoed.

Treat the circular chamber as an instrument: place 4–6 freestanding, directional speakers around the ring on light stands, angled inward. Use a quad/5.0 decode and a room‑IR convolution to tame reflections, with sparse ship textures that slowly pan. Trigger cues by PIR or timer; add portable absorbers on stands. All gear portable and removable under €800.