China's Yangtze River arrives at Gatwick Airport
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 river in rich detail as they head along the 180m walkway.
Replicating the real-time sounds of the Yangtze River, the soundscape is programmed to react to the time of day, the weather on the river, and even responds to the movements of individual travellers. This will provide each passenger with a unique experience.
HSBC and WWF have been working together since 2002 to help protect the Yangtze as part of the HSBC Water programme and the pioneering sound installation celebrates this partnership.
Since becoming independently-owned in 2009, Gatwick has placed a focus on delivering a high level of passenger service. The airport has already invested more than £1 billion in new and improved services for travellers and has since pledged to spend a £1 billion more.
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 the beautiful 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’."