{"id":48774,"date":"2023-02-16T12:35:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T12:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/?p=48774"},"modified":"2023-08-04T17:18:07","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T16:18:07","slug":"voiceline-nick-ryan-rme-bbc-strand-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.synthax.co.uk\/latest\/2023\/02\/16\/voiceline-nick-ryan-rme-bbc-strand-london\/","title":{"rendered":"The VoiceLine: Celebrating 100 years of the BBC on London’s Strand Aldwych"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Artist, Composer and Sound Designer Nick Ryan on transforming London\u2019s Strand Aldwych into an immersive audio installation…<\/h3>\n

The Strand is one of London\u2019s oldest and most iconic streets. A major artery in the heart of the city, the road runs roughly parallel along the north side of the river Thames, and is believed to date all the way back to the original Roman settlement of Londinium.<\/p>\n

From Fleet Street on its eastern border to Trafalgar Square in London\u2019s West End, The Strand today remains a busy thoroughfare for tourists and commuters – lined with cafes, pubs and restaurants, and home to famous buildings like The Savoy Hotel, as well as art and design mecca Somerset House.<\/p>\n

In December 2022, Westminster Council made the decision to fully pedestrianise a section of The Strand in Aldwych, dedicating around 7000 metres squared – roughly the size of a football pitch – into a new public space. The area\u2019s rich and fascinating history is now open for visitors to enjoy and explore at their leisure, renovated into \u2018a place of peace and calm inside the often-frantic central London\u2019.<\/p>\n

In fitting with its transformation into a new creative hub, Westminster Council have commissioned a variety of art installations and upcoming events for the location, the first of which is an experimental instrument \/ immersive audio exhibit designed by artist Nick Ryan.<\/p>\n

Produced in partnership with the BBC, \u2018The VoiceLine\u2019 is currently adorning The Strand Aldwych with a daily programme of bespoke spatial audio, paying homage to the area\u2019s historical broadcasting legacy, and delighting visitors through an evolving pathway of sound, delivered by a line of 39 highly focused speakers.<\/p>\n

Award-winning Composer, Sound Designer and resident Somerset House artist Nick Ryan kindly spoke to Synthax UK about this fascinating project, which is powered by a selection of RME Audio AVB<\/a> and MADI interfaces<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"WestminsterCelebrating 100 years of the BBC<\/h2>\n

First up, a quick history lesson! One of the many interesting facets of The Strand is its links to the BBC, with 2022 marking 100 years since the founding of the UK\u2019s beloved national broadcaster.<\/p>\n

London\u2019s first radio transmission<\/a> was broadcast on 11th<\/sup> May 1922 (from The Strand\u2019s Marconi House) via \u20182LO\u2019, a medium wave transmitter then owned by The Marconi Company.<\/p>\n

A pioneering telecommunications and engineering establishment, Marconi Company was founded by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, who shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Telefunken co-founder Karl Ferdinand Braun, and is widely recognised as one of the Godfathers of radio.<\/p>\n

The BBC was formed later the same year, acquiring 2LO and beginning daily broadcasts from November 14th 1922 onwards. Twenty years later, The BBC World Service made its home in Bush House – another building located on The Strand – broadcasting news, speech and discussion across the airwaves, to a global audience in over 40 languages.<\/p>\n

This connection between The Strand – and its place in the history of radio broadcasting – led to Northbank and Westminster Council\u2019s commissioning of Nick Ryan, with a brief to build a new audio installation in tribute to the BBC\u2019s centenary, and in celebration of the opening of London\u2019s major new public space.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

I heard it through The VoiceLine<\/h2>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a multi-disciplinary sound artist and composer,\u201d explains Nick. \u201cMuch of my work involves applying emerging technologies to the making or listening process, or introducing people to new ways of thinking about audio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fascinated by auditory representations of information – language, as well as physical materiality and space – which I explore through the creation of immersive sound and multi-sensory installations, as well as bespoke instruments, interactive audio experiences, and data sonifications.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe VoiceLine is a unique instrument for voice, sound, music, and audio storytelling. Its creation was shaped by the new site, spanning the length of the 170m space, and draws on the vast resources of the BBC\u2019s audio archives. Engaging the public with voices from the past; early innovations of radio, famous voices from the nation\u2019s news and the tongues of the BBC World Service, as well as the multi-layered history of the Strand itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visitors to The VoiceLine encounter a rich sonic tapestry of unique spatial sound, comprised of both archive and original recordings and compositions. The programme includes early radio broadcasts, spatial urban field recordings of cities from around the world, as well as natural environments, from the forests of Canada, to the sound of melting ice in the Arctic.<\/p>\n

Additional works include \u2018visions of the future\u2019 gathered from Kings College London students; recreations of the Strand\u2019s pre-industrial traffic; experiments with sound from The BBC Radiophonic Workshop (and others); and the mysterious and often ominous utterances of \u2018Number Stations\u2019 – coded messages broadcast by foreign intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe installation itself is delivered from 39 L-acoustics 5XT speakers, powered by 10 x LA4X four channel amplifiers,\u201d Nick continues. \u201cAudio is supplied via AVB to the amplifiers using an RME Digiface AVB<\/a> interface, connected to a high-power Mac running Qlab and Max MSP.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have a secondary, fallback \/ parallel system providing redundancy using an RME MADIface USB, which allows the system to switch over automatically in case of failure to the primary Mac.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis setup allows me to creatively generate content for the VoiceLine, which exploits the spatial extent of the installation along the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, each speaker at times features a different voice speaking from the BBC radio archive. Other times, arpeggiated musical melodies and field recordings can travel up and down the full length of the installation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

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Fathom, Adrift and Machine 9<\/h2>\n

Alongside his creative installation pieces, Nick Ryan has collaborated with a wide range of artists and organisations including the BBC, MIT Media Lab, Imogen Heap, Underworld, The London Contemporary Orchestra and many others.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also a critically-acclaimed Composer and Sound Designer for TV, Film and Radio, being the recipient of two MPSE Golden Reels<\/em> for his work in sound design, as well as winning a BAFTA for Technical Innovation<\/em> for \u2018The Dark House’ in 2004 (a ground-breaking interactive binaural Radio Drama which he co-devised, scored and mixed live on air for BBC Radio 4).<\/p>\n

It was his work on the film Fathom however – a unique documentary that follows two scientists on a quest to decipher the complex communication of whales – that saw Nick awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Sound 2022<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Fathom \u2014 Official Trailer | Apple TV+<\/h4>\n