Overview:
The Collaborative Escape Room Project (CERP) was a cross-departmental project developed at The University of Texas at Austin for the Planet Texas 2050 initiative. The combined efforts of Engineering, Theater, and Arts and Entertainment Technology students led to a one-of-a-kind interactive experience. The CERP is a fully fabricated escape room designed to both teach and open up players to discussion regarding the Planet Texas initiative by placing them inside a catastrophic hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. The project was designed in a modular nature to allow for the relocation of the project in a potential tour across the country.
I acted as the sole audio team member, from sound design, to equipment installation, to sample collecting, and cue programming.
Sound Engineering:
The end goal was to create as realistic an auditory experience as I could. To accomplish this, I needed to place a variety of speakers all around, inside, and on top of the escape room. Speakers and subs on the outside of the room provided the wind, ocean, and storm noises. Speakers placed on top of metal sheets on top of the roof provided spatial immersion with rain impact sounds. A small ceiling PA system installed into the space allowed the players to hear the alarms and alerts necessary to the puzzles and story of the experience.
Sound Design:
For the storm, I pulled a variety of storm noises and crafted them all together to form a massive hurricane, creating a variety of stems that could be mixed inside the space, evolving steadily over the 30 minute span.
The escape room's narrative included two characters with dialogue; both of which required recording, editing, and programming lines into QLab.
The entire experience was run by a master computer, utilizing OSC messages to trigger Qlab transitions, dialogue lines, and videos.
Touch OSC & Mixing:
To better mix the sounds of the storm and dialogue lines, I created a Touch OSC patch I could utilize from a mobile phone, so completely control the sound design of the space. This proved invaluable, providing a far more efficient way to mix each noise appropriately.
