Meyer Sound at San Francisco's CJM Are We There Yet? Exhibit

Are We There Yet?, a new exhibition at San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum, immerses visitors in the inquisitive tradition of Jewish culture. Created by Ken Goldberg and Gil Gershoni and subtitled 5,000 Years of Answering Questions with Questions, this "reactive sound environment" employs a custom-programmed robotic camera to track movements of visitors through the gallery. The camera's data then instructs a Meyer Sound D-Mitri digital audio platform to play back pre-recorded questions, with the insistent inquiries progressing through a three-dimensional sound field of Meyer Sound loudspeakers, always keeping step with the designated visitors.

"Are you experienced? Is that all there is? Do you feel lucky? Paper or plastic?" Wherever the visitor moves, the stream of questions -- leaned from Jewish scripture and popular culture -- will follow.

Recorded by a variety of voices, the questions persistently interrogate visitors through a 16-channel surround system of Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers. Twelve MM-4XP miniature loudspeakers are placed around the perimeter of the floor, six legacy UPM-1 loudspeakers are set overhead, and bass is supplemented by dual MM-10 miniature subwoofers. The heart of the system is the D-Mitri digital audio platform, which incorporates Wild Tracks audio playback and proprietary SpaceMap multichannel panning for dynamic shifting of the questioning voices among multiple loudspeakers for the immersive, intelligent tracking effect.

"We originally envisioned a very simple assignment of tracks to individual speakers," remarks Gershoni, the sound designer for the project. "But when we learned about D-Mitri, we realized we could blend tracks between speakers. The questions would dynamically float through space, adding yet another dimension to the concept."

The tiny yet powerful MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers proved critical for managing sounds in the soaring, asymmetrical space of the museum's Daniel Libeskind-designed Yud Gallery. "The acoustics were very challenging, with hard reflective surfaces," notes Gershoni. "The MM-4XPs were perfect for working within the unique architecture of the gallery."

Ken Goldberg is an artist and professor of robotics at UC Berkeley. Gil Gershoni is an artist as well as founder and creative director of Gershoni Creative, an award-winning agency based in San Francisco. Gilad Gershoni was the sound designer and senior system architect, while Andrew Godbehere contributed as computer vision system engineer. Meyer Sound is a supporter of the exhibition, along with Creative Work Fund and the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Are We There Yet? is open to visitors of the Contemporary Jewish Museum through July, 2011.