Icast: Trials & Tribulations of Deploying Large Scale Computer-Controlled speaker Arrays

The Immersive Computer-controlled Audio Sound Theater (ICAST, pronounced “eye-cast”) is an on-going research project that addresses performance issues in electroacoustic music. By exploring a variety of differing performance modes through a computer-controlled loudspeaker environment that is malleable, adaptable and intuitive, we are able to explore new and novel metaphors for sound control using both conventional and unconventional interfaces. ICAST is a hardware and software solution, based on a client-server computer control system, commodity audio interface hardware, and high-quality audio amplifiers and loudspeakers. Our system has been deployed for concerts and conferences throughout the past year. Through this initial deployment phase, we have identified critical issues with respect to our client/server systems design, our client software control, and our audio server. This paper identifies both the successes and the struggles we have had, and outlines the solutions we have taken to address these issues. What we have learned from this research has applications that go well beyond concert hall performances, and include virtual reality environments, cinema, and video games.