At the Wood Museum of Springfield History exhibit Horn Man: The Life and Musical Legacy of Charles Neville, several Holosonics AS-168i Audio Spotlight directional sound speakers provide sanitary, touchless directional audio playlists that highlight the musician’s proficiency in a range of musical genres. Visitors to the exhibition at the museum in Springfield, MA, experience Audio Spotlight’s revolutionary directional sound beaming technology in an exhibition that promotes social distancing as it pays tribute to the late saxophonists’ life.
To protect the health of patrons as well as staff members, museum and gallery directors are rethinking exhibit designs and audio delivery systems due the changed social landscape brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unsanitary devices such as headphones, handsets, and listening wands have become antiquated, as exhibit venues everywhere have implemented social distancing measures and touchless technologies.
Engaging visitors in an immersive, personal experience while keeping the surrounding area quiet, the flexible and self-powered Audio Spotlight directional sound speaker is a powerful tool that ensures any exhibit in a museum or gallery has its own isolated audio. By requiring no physical contact from the listener, it has become an even more valuable tool owing to its inherently touchless design that delivers personalized audio experiences.
Known onstage as “Charlie the Horn Man,” R&B and jazz musician Charles Neville was born in 1938 in New Orleans. Influenced early in life by the New Orleans’s music scene, Charles and his siblings formed the Neville Brothers, who became best-known for songs that embraced rhythm and blues, gospel, doo-wop, soul, rock, jazz, funk, and the sounds of Mardi Gras.
At the Wood Museum exhibit, Holosonics’ patented directional speaker technology was used to isolate sound for patrons, who are directed by floor decals indicating where to stand to hear music activated by motion sensor triggers embedded in the Audio Spotlight units. Each individual playlist in the exhibit’s five AS-168i speakers includes a selection of songs that highlight different points in Neville’s journey as a musician.
[Critical Elements of Immersive Audio]
“This exhibition that celebrates Charles Neville’s life and music would not have been complete without sound and we are happy to include the unique Audio Spotlight technology to enhance the visitor experience,” said Phyllis Jurkowski, collections specialist. “Charles Neville has been remembered as an incredibly warm and giving individual, and we hope that the directional speakers reinforce the intimate nature of this exhibition, while at the same time providing up to five visitors in the gallery the opportunity to experience directly the music which so defined him.”
