Gatwick Airport installs Skybridge sound experience

Gatwick Airport has presented a unique soundscape experience of China’s Yangtze River for passengers travelling through the airport’s Skybridge.

The installation of the soundscape within the airport’s Skybridge, entitled ‘A Living River’, is the world’s longest and most advanced soundscape in an airport. It provides departing and arriving passengers with the chance to experience the authentic sounds of the 6,300km Yangtze River in detail as they head along the 180m walkway. The installation has been brought to the airport through a HSBC-led project in partnership with WWF.

The project replicates real-time sounds of the river and reacts to the time of day, weather on river and even responds to the movements of individual travellers.

‘A Living River’ at Gatwick Airport features over 100 hours of authentic sounds taken directly from 35 locations

Gatwick Chief Commercial Officer Guy Stephenson, said: “This truly unique soundscape perfectly illustrates Gatwick’s ambition to deliver innovative and memorable experiences for our passengers to enjoy.

“We take extra pride that we are achieving this by working with a major global business such as HSBC to promote their Water programme, in partnership with WWF.

“Gatwick Airport will hit the 40 million passenger mark soon after opening this spectacular experience, meaning we will have a record breaking number of customers who will now be able to enjoy it.”

‘A Living River’ features over 100 hours of authentic sounds taken directly from 35 locations. The sounds flow and ebb across the Skybridge, transmitted by 160 speakers and 80 different channels to immerse travellers in 3D sound.

The wall of colourful imagery, shot along the Yangtze, complements the sounds passengers hear as they travel from one side of China to the other – from the First Bend of the Yangtze to the mouth near Shanghai – and showcases wildlife, nature and the millions of people who call the river home.

Nick Ryan, ‘A Living River’ sound designer, said: “I believe that sound, and the act of listening, can entirely transform our sense of ‘place’ and thus, ourselves. I wanted to design a highly immersive audio installation that could ‘relocate’ listeners, for an instant, to the banks of the Yangtze River, with a tangible, ‘first person’ sensory experience of its pace, beauty and diversity. Using ground breaking technical and creative approaches to audio, and audio technology, we’ve created a spellbinding journey down an evolving, responsive and ‘Living River’.”