Oscar winner Resul Pookutty to fine-tune sound of Futala fountain on Nagpur visit next week

The musical fountain at Futala is getting ready to restart, and its last task is one that will not be seen but will certainly be heard. Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty is due in Nagpur next week. He will carry out special audio calibration so that spectators in the viewing gallery get the same clear, immersive sound wherever they sit or walk.

The repair work has reached a crucial technical stage. The emphasis is no longer only on switching the fountain on but on building the entire audio-visual experience. The challenge is to keep the music, the movement of the water and the lighting fully in step, and to keep the sound quality uniform across this large open complex.

Alphons Roy, an Emmy Award-winning cinematographer and technical director of Futala, said Pookutty's work goes beyond ordinary sound engineering. He has to remove differences in audio levels across the gallery, so that spectators moving from one section to another do not find the music alternately loud and soft.

Pookutty went to Las Vegas to understand the sound engineering techniques used in large-scale entertainment installations. Based on his observations there and Futala's own acoustic needs, he approached Dolby and asked for specific changes to its algorithm so that it suits the open setting of the fountain. The aim is ambitious: uniform coverage in volume and clarity across the whole viewing area, without marked fluctuations.

Unlike an ordinary auditorium, Futala has no walls or roof to hold the sound in. Wind, weather, the placement of speakers and the varying distances of spectators from the source of the sound all make balancing the sound quite difficult. The sound system therefore has to be built to overcome these environmental problems rather than depend on the natural echo of a closed hall.

Meanwhile, after official technical work began this month, the international technical team has started programming the fountain's multimedia system. Once programming is done, the audio will be tuned, and then the water jets, lighting effects and music will be blended. The whole process is expected to take about a month.

The programming phase is important because it decides how the fountain's mechanical and electronic parts will run to the audio-visual sequence. Every movement of the water and every change of light must match the music exactly. Last Sunday, for a few minutes, jets of water rose amid orange light, giving a hopeful glimpse of the progress of the repairs.

Belgian expert Basile de Schrynmakers, Nicolas and other members of the international team are in Nagpur at present, overseeing the final preparations. Mahametro officials expect the technical preparations to be complete by the first week of December. However, completion of the technical work should not be taken to mean that public shows will begin, because shows for the public will depend on the necessary approvals and arrangements for a formal inauguration.

The real test of the repairs at Futala will be not just the height of the water or the brightness of the lights, but whether the whole spectacle holds together like a precise performance. With Pookutty's audio expertise joining in the last phase, Futala wants its musical fountain to offer an experience in which sound spreads evenly, lights change in step and water dances to the beat. The well-known fountain of Nagpur is preparing to offer an experience for the ears as well as the eyes this time.