Acoustiguide’s Creative team recently had a play date in the streets of New York.

More specifically, it was at Grand Central Terminal, one of the city’s surviving architectural gems, a meeting place for millions, home to the umpteenth branch of Shake Shack and the site of what may be New York’s most mythical tennis court.

The day dawned snowy and grey and turned into sunshine and thaw. Our guest of honor was “Fred the Head,” a recording system designed to capture the binaural audio experience, or audio in 3-D… recreating the way we actually hear the world around us.

 

Our goal? To create a bite-sized “narrative experience” without words… in an immersive surround-soundscape.

Here’s a taste of that experience. (Do note: It will only work if you’re wearing headphones as you listen.)

We were surprised most New Yorkers didn’t blink an eye when they saw Fred cruising down the street or in the subway… but then again, this is New York, and they've seen weirder.

 

Our take-away? Binaural can be an effective tool for capturing multiple points-of-view (think: dueling curators) or to capture a space where the space is the thing (think: a tour of a new building). But it can also be overwhelming, muddy-sounding and confusing. Kind of like the experience of New York City, eh?

We can’t wait to play again…