Yamaha’s Sound xR object-based mixing engine is helping audiences step from modern London into the world of 1896 Paris in CHAT NOIR!, The Lost Estate’s latest immersive production. Staged in West Kensington, the experience blends a three-course French banquet with vintage cocktails, live music, magic, mime, dance, comedy and song.
The challenge was to deliver a richly responsive soundscape without allowing modern technology to interrupt the period setting. Sound designer Luke Swaffield of Autograph Sound created a discreet system in which loudspeakers and microphones remain hidden, while performers and musicians wear ZacTrack trackers. Their positional data is passed into Sound xR using OSC, allowing voices and instruments to follow the artists naturally around the in-the-round space.
Rather than simply surrounding the audience with audio, the system makes sound behave as part of the physical environment. Sound xR also enables the production team to change the acoustic character of the room dynamically, supporting each shift in mood and action while keeping the technical infrastructure out of sight.
The result demonstrates how precision, automation and flexible object-based mixing can support non-traditional productions without dictating the creative design. Visitors experience a believable sonic world that responds to the performance in real time, helping the boundary between audience and stage disappear.
For attraction designers and producers, the project is a useful example of audio serving narrative first. Complex routing and tracking remain behind the scenes, while the creative team can concentrate on intimacy, direction and atmosphere. The same principle can inform dark rides, experiential dining, museum environments and other formats where audiences move within the action.
Yamaha joins the Experience UK delegation at IAAPA Expo Europe 2026. Meet the delegation at the UK Pavilion, stand S837, to discover how British creativity and international technology are shaping the next generation of immersive experiences.
