Flyover in Chicago, USA

The Opportunity

Flyover in Chicago, a new immersive indoor flying ride located within Chicago’s landmark waterfront Navy Pier, opened in Spring 2024. This attraction joins Flyover’s existing installations in Las Vegas, Vancouver, and Reykjavik. Flyover Chicago aims to transport guests to some of the planet’s most epic places through exhilarating flying journeys, showcasing the city from unique perspectives with advanced drone technologies, impressive aerial shots, and first-person narratives. The ride features a 65-foot spherical screen and flight motion seats engineered to swoop, dip, and turn, providing a fully immersive experience using wind, mist, and scents. The challenge was to deliver a state-of-the-art audio experience that matched the visual and physical elements of the ride.

The Solution

To achieve this, Flyover collaborated with HARMAN Professional Solutions, utilizing their immersive audio software and a customized system of JBL Professional loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers, and BSS signal processing. The project was led by Tim Archer of Masters Digital and Philipp Hartl of Kraftwerk Living Technologies (KLT), with extensive support from FLUX:: SPAT Revolution.

Immersive Entertainment

The main attraction is a 10-foot diameter circular “lollipop” screen surrounded by an elliptical screen wrapping 360 degrees around the audience. JBL COL800 column loudspeakers and JBL AC18/26 compact two-way loudspeakers were used to provide immersive audio from behind the perforated screens, supported by ceiling-mounted JBL ASB6115 subwoofers. SPAT Revolution controlled the audio, dynamically spatializing sources using Wave Field Synthesis to ensure clear and immersive sound.

The Main Flight Ride

For the main flight ride, guests are seated on one of three moving platforms. To deliver realistic and well-balanced sound to every guest, 34 JBL AM7215-series high-power two-way loudspeakers were deployed in four vertical layers, supplemented by four JBL ASB7128 dual 18-inch subwoofers. SPAT Revolution rendered different signal feeds for each loudspeaker, ensuring accurate localization and immersive sound despite the platforms’ constant motion. Additionally, JBL Control 23-1 ultracompact speakers were mounted on each seat back for rear localization.

The Impact

“The Science Museum Planetarium projects presented a unique and exciting opportunity for our integration team,” said Jamie Gorman, Principal, Acuity Audiovisual. “While immersive planetarium audio is not our specialty, partnering with HARMAN Professional’s engineering afforded us access to expert resources for optimizing our design and delivering an awesome audio experience for Science Museum patrons.”

Tim Archer praised the capabilities of SPAT Revolution, stating, “When you’ve got eight speakers that are not in a simple array and all are receiving the same content, how do you get away with not having comb filtering? The answer is that you run the signal through SPAT. It’s a game changer.” Archer also highlighted the challenge of mixing audio for three different planes of guests, ensuring each had a unique and immersive experience.

Philipp Hartl emphasized the importance of teamwork, noting, “It was great to see the different companies work together and not against each other, which was the case at Flyover. We learned from each other, and that was the best thing which could have happened there.”

Eric Sambell, Flyover’s Global Director of Construction and Entertainment, lauded the collaborative effort, stating, “The technology has to be so good that it disappears, like it isn’t even there, so that guests enjoy a seamless experience from the moment they walk in the door to when they walk out afterwards.”

The successful implementation of the sophisticated audio system at Flyover Chicago ensures that guests can fully immerse themselves in the stunning visual and auditory experiences, enhancing their overall visit and solidifying Flyover Chicago as a premier immersive attraction.