Experience Music Project

EXPERIENCE MUSIC PROJECT CHOOSES JBL PROFESSIONAL AS THEIREXCLUSIVE LOUDSPEAKER PROVIDER

NORTHRIDGE, CA July 21, 2000 - With a charter to build the most exciting musical experience possible, Seattle's Experience Music Project selected JBL Professional as their exclusive provider of loudspeakers for the world's most ambitious music creation and education center. JBL loudspeakers will deliver the sound throughout the entire facility, including live performance and interactive museum areas. The museum features the 200-seat JBL Theatre that includes a JBL Professional ScreenArray™ cinema sound system. The JBL Theater will be used for live performance, seminars and screenings of EMP productions.

Located in downtown Seattle and opened on June 23, world renowned architect Frank Gehry's unique design houses 140,000 square feet of interactive exhibits. Visitors can create their own music, see and learn about rare artifacts and memorabilia from the museum's collection of more than 80,000 items, explore various musical milestones within unique interpretive exhibits, feel the power of the creative force by listening to musicians tell their own stories, and discover the power and joy of music in all its forms.

"JBL is one of the sponsors and partners of the Experience Music Project. They have provided all of the speakers in the facility and in a lot of cases have worked to customize audio treatments," stated Paul Zumwalt, Design and Construction Director. "The JBL Theatre, Sky Church, every speaker, every audio system in the EMP is JBL. One of the key things for this whole building is flexibility. We found JBL to be really helpful in designing a very flexible sound system. This sound system will support live music to ambience to background music and everything in between."

A Close Collaboration
JBL Professional's Harman Professional Projects Group (HPPG)worked closely with the Low Voltage and A/V design group at Sparling , Soundelux, the A/V contractors , and the museum staff to maximize the effectiveness of JBL speakers and other Harman products throughout the museum. In many cases JBL's Custom Shop designed and built custom systems to fit the unique requirements of EMP. The museum features JBL, Allen & Heath and Crown amplifiers, microphones from AKG Acoustics, multiple BSS Soundweb systems, dbx preamp processing technologies and Spirit by Soundcraft consoles.

"If I can focus in on Harman products and deal with one group of people instead of having to spread myself out across a number of people, this is a benefit," said Robert Fitzsimmons, EMP's Director of Technology, about working with HPPG. "We use BSS product throughout the plant as our digital signal processing on all exhibit and specialty audio systems. We are now in the process of fine tuning all of our systems with Soundelux, our audio contractor."

"It truly is a spectacular realization of an amazing vision," says Rod Falconer, Marketing Manager, Harman Professional Projects Group.

"In every aspect of the design and execution, the dedication to only the highest standards of performance is readily apparent. Given JBL Professional's shared history with the birth and development of rock and roll and our equally determined commitment to quality and design, it's fitting that JBL loudspeaker systems are an integral part of the museum's expression of that vision."

Sky Church
"Sky Church is the grand hall of the Experience Music Project. During the day, this is where the dinosaurs would be if this was a natural history museum," according to Zumwalt. "At night, it is a party space, a gala cocktail space, and a concert venue. It is designed with a lot of flexibility.

"The audio system placed a lot of extravagant demands on JBL. We have a 24 channel system. We wanted both very directional speakers but also wide array distribution. We wanted a system where we could place wind and cloud sounds at the very top while delivering spoken voice down at floor level. We're very happy with the sound. The video wall in Sky Church is a 40' x 70' Sony Jumbotron. We have several narrow 9" wide line array systems custom built by JBL that are incorporated into the screen. That way we can address sound right from the screen or locate it at specific places on the screen."

Artist Journey
"JBL plays a major part in 'Artist Journey', a ride similar to 'Spider Man' at Universal Studios, also designed by Soundelux. Artist Journey is a motion platform ride with three parts. Forty people can be on the ride at the same time," explained Zumwalt. "Act One is alounge, that is very controlled with JBL Control 1 Speakers. Act Twois a very tall room with a series of ramps. Act Three is a ride with incredible sonic blasts from all directions around a 70 mm screen.It's a very intense sonic experience with a lot of JBL equipment. "JBL Venue Series, Sound Power, Marquis Series, Control Series,ScreenArray, and custom subwoofer systems are also used throughoutthe ride. JBL Installation Range and Contractor Control Series loudspeakers systems are featured extensively throughout EMP's interactive museumareas. All of the eight recording studios are outfitted with JBL Professional LSR Series monitors. The wide use of JBL Control Seriesspeaker systems is also very apparent in the Sound Lab areas.

The Exhibits
More than 150 artists and music industry experts have created Oral Histories for EMP. These are original filmed interviews where they share their contributions to the world of American popular music and discuss their memories, stories and inspired moments. Experience Music Project's collection includes nearly 80,000 artifacts that have shaped music history including musical instruments (from one of the first electric guitars to those used by artists such as Bob Dylan, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters and Kurt Cobain), an extensive recorded sound archive, film, photographs, fanzines from around the country, stage costumes, hand written song lyrics, and rare song sheets. The brainchild of Microsoft cofounder, Paul G. Allen and Jody Allen Patton, EMP was designed by Frank Gehry whose works include such modern architectural masterpieces as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and the Fredrick R. Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis. The museum is dedicated to the celebration and exploration of creativity and innovation as expressed through American popular music and exemplified by rock 'n' roll its roots in jazz, soul, gospel, country and the blues, as well as its influence on hip-hop, punk and other more recent genres. For more information on the EMP, go to http://www.emplive.com

Aerial view of Experience Music Project

Sky Church with 24 channel JBL Pro Sound System

Eastern side of EMP on June 1, three weeks prior to opening.

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