During Milan Design Week 2026, 26,000+ visitors stepped into Soundsorial Design, an immersive sound installation fusing acoustic engineering, sensory design, and a composition every guest helped shape.
Commissioned by PM International, the project was created and produced by Battle Royal Studios in collaboration with client brand partner, Devialet. This exchange also introduced a co-branded limited-edition collection. The space was transformed into a living sonic landscape, where guests orchestrated the music, visual sound effects, lighting and animation in real-time.
Five sound signatures,
one composition
The brief began with a partnership: PM International’s flagship brand and Devialet, aligned around sound. The ambition for Battle Royal Studios was to turn that into a participatory installation where guests could see sound, and shape the experience together, developed in close collaboration with Devialet’s acoustic engineering team.
At the heart of the experience was a custom-built Sound Signature journey designed to transform every guest from a spectator into an active participant.
BRS shaped the concept, developed the spatial design, the Sound Signature system, the live content driven by guest touch, and two evolving sound themes composed specifically for the installation: an Orchestral Arc and a Human Synthesis arc. Each guest’s voice became a frequency. Across thirty-three Devialet speakers, five frequencies were layered into a single composition, meaning no two groups ever heard the same way.
Two rooms. Five basins. A layered sound experience.
The experience was built as a complete acoustic ecosystem, fusing spatial design, sound design, and real-time interaction into one continuous composition. Two rooms inside Opificio 31 carried the journey. The introduction room held a single large-format AV screen and a 90-second briefing film that synchronised video, light, and audio for every group entering together.
Inside the experience room
The main experience room housed five water basins, each visualising sound through cymatic-inspired water vibrations that reveal how different frequencies create unique patterns, movements, and forms.
Three touch tablets per basin let guests influence the sound, water ripples, and visuals into one symphony. A curved LED video wall running the full length of one side, a suspended brand logo fixture float above the central basin, and thirty -three Devialet speakers were tuned across the space.
Every detail was set so each set of guests left with a composition no other group ever heard.
From press to public
Before the doors opened to the public, two media days hosted Italian and International press. That evening, the room shifted into an exclusive 500-guest consumer launch, with DJs and the Soundsorial Limited Edition pop-up opening for the first time. The public week followed: 7 days, 26,000 visitors. Each audience saw a different version of the same composition.
A composition built one voice at a time
Guests arrived to a topographic facade lit against the Tortona night. Hosts moved through the queue with iPads. Every guest spoke a short phrase into the Sound Signature app, a bespoke tool developed for iPad in both English and Italian, and real-time voice analysis assigned them to one of five Sound Signatures: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone, or Bass. Each guest left the queue with a printed card carrying their signature. Across the run, 6,500+ were generated.
Inside the entrance tunnel, light and sound dropped to near silence. Groups of 60 filed into the blacked-out introduction room, where a the briefing film set the rules of the room ahead.
The experience room was the centrepiece. Basin lighting and specially trained promoters steered each guest to their assigned signature. At their basin, they could activate their own layer within the composition, a distinct sonic element linked to their vocal profile: every input audible, visible, and tactile in the same instant. As more basins came individual sounds layered into something larger. The orchestral theme built strings, brass, and winds into harmony; the human synthesis theme moved through breaths, hums, whispers, and vocal textures.
Across five acts and seven minutes, the room gathered force, until a final movement pulled all five signatures into one composition: a single sound, made of every voice in the room. Voice became vibration, vibration became visual form, and individual frequencies came together to create something greater than the sum of their parts.
Sound, made portable
Across the installation, every touchpoint was designed to make the experience personal. Inside the experience room, signatures shaped the composition. Beyond it, they shaped what guests took home.
In the pop-up retail area, two limited edition devices were suspended above black ferrofluid in a glass vessel, controlled by a rotary knob with five positions. Each lock triggered a ripple preset corresponding to one of the Sound Signatures. Guests who purchased a device received a tote bag printed with their personal signature pattern; existing devices could be customised with the same. 4000+ guests passed through the pop-up, and 863 devices were sold across the run.
Adjacent to the exhibition, the club lounge welcomed 3,000+ guests, where conversations carried on after the exhibit rooms. Every voice left with something of itself attached.
Concert technology, in a room
A room of thirty-three Devialet speakers, five water basins, and a curved LED video wall demanded total precision. Every basin had to respond on cue. Every act had to land in sync. The show ran on a live entertainment production stack. Notch software. Scripted timelines. Lighting designers, sound designers, show directors, and art directors.
The same roles and tools that power concerts and festivals, applied here to a static room with an active audience. 15 simultaneously synced instruments were controlled live by the guests, allowing them to master the instruments expression and tone. A major achievement allowing a spontaneous orchestra effect which remained in tune and on tempo regardless of how the touch interfaces were triggered.
BRS led production with key specialist collaborators to achieve this world-first activation. Proof that the precision of a festival main stage can scale down to a room of 150 and still feel monumental.
Amongst 1,000+ exhibitions,
into the top 8
Across more than 1,000 exhibitions at Milan Design Week 2026, Soundsorial Design was named a Top 12 Finalist for Best Exhibition at the Fuorisalone Awards 2026, received the Special Mention for “Engagement & Interaction”, and was selected among the Top 8 Must-See experiences of the week.
Designing for participation
Across seven days at Milan Design Week 2026, Soundsorial Design united the design press, brand audience, and music and acoustic engineering communities in a single sensorial conversation.
We blurred the lines between brand, design, sound, and live entertainment, proving that an installation can be precise enough to run on a festival production stack and personal enough to give 26,000 guests and 6,000+ voices a place inside it.
For BRS, it was a reaffirmation of what we continue to build. We design experiences that turn audiences into participants, and participation into the work itself.
What we delivered
- Concept, creative direction, and show design by Battle Royal Studios
- Full event production lead and contracting agency, A to Z
- Creative leadership between Philip Morris International, Devialet, and all production partners
- Spatial design for the introduction room and the experience room inside Opificio 31
- Interaction design for five Sound Signature basins, including touch panels and water ripple feedback
- Acoustic system design with 33 Devialet speakers across both rooms
- Sound Signature app: iPad-based vocal analysis, English and Italian
- Real-time generative content for the curved LED video wall
- Two evolving sound themes, each seven minutes long, structured in four acts
- 90-second introduction film with synchronised light and audio
- Topographic exterior facade and entrance tunnel
- Soundsorial Limited Edition pop-up, including the interactive ferrofluid sculpture
- Capsule collection: tote bag and device pattern design
- DJ booth and consumer event production for 500 guests
- Press packs and content capture across two media days
- On-site team across set up, rehearsals, three event days, and seven public days
- Site management and dismantling
This project was developed for PM International, in partnership with Devialet, designed for one of their products under their SFP portfolio.
Looking to create something sensorial, participatory, and emotionally lasting?
We look at Brand Engagement holistically, designing 360° experiences that turn audiences into co-creators and moments into shared culture.
Credits
- Creative
Brendan Shelper
Co-CEO & Exec Creative Director
Andy Machals
Senior Creative Producer
Ole Reinsberger
Senior Creative Producer
Catalina Figliolia
Head of Spatial Design
Mert Aytac
Spatial Designer (Hey Hoh Studios)
Philipp Hohmann
Lead Spatial Designer (Hey Hoh Studios)
Stefan Spendier
Video Producer
Shan Blume
Art Director
Duncan McDade
Motion Designer
Morten Fossoey
Motion Designer
Diana Roesch
Creative Producer
Roman Mihalevitch
Tablet UX Design - Client Services
Chrissie Overton
Head of Client Services, Media Events & Content
Stephanie Bassman
Media Events & Content
Ola Wilczynski
Project Lead
James Maclay
Project Lead
Thalia Davies
MSA Project Manager - Production
Florian Kuhlmann
Production Director
Sven Huegle
Technical Director (VenCo)
Hannah Zander
Technical Manager (VenCo)
Jan-Philipp Heyne
Video Network Planner (VenCo)
Florian Bücking
Floor Manager
Alessia Avallone
Travel and Logistics
Kaya Knapper
Logistics & Production Office
Sarah La Tragna
Head of Events and Activations
Nadine Leder
Deputy Head of Events - Music & Playback System
Andrew Hockey
Composer (Kling Klang Klong)
Maurice Mersinger
Composer (Kling Klang Klong)
Nayan Soukie
Composer - Sound
Antoine Petroff
Tech Consultant & Sound Designer (Devialet) - Lighting
Chris Moylan
Designer (Sunrise Studios), Lighting Design
Klaus Kubesch
Lighting Operator
Andreas Schindler
Resolum Operator - Documentation
Marcus Zumbansen
Photographer
Eric Jaeger
Senior Creative Producer
Sebastian Pruss
DOP / Videographer
Jacqueline Ofner
Photographer - Technical
Jacob Siebert
Technical Lead (dlp-motive)
Paul Boschan
Project Lead (dlp-motive)
Robin Hermann
Head Audio (dlp-motive)
Jan Grießhaber
Head Network (dlp-motive)
Fabian Vogel
Head Light (dlp-motive)
Kevin Witt
Head Video (dlp-motive)
Aron Klauke
Media Server Programmer (Plan Valley)
Tobias Arndt
Founder (Plan Valley) - Scenic
Scenic Production
Chrissy Zwick
Senior Project Lead (Artlife)
Jens Dreilich
Project Lead (Artlife)
Soeren Walter
Head Carpenter (Artlife) - Basins, Tablets & Ferrofluid Displays
Thomas Harbers
Owner (Greenpost), Creative & Construction
Johannes Bauer
Technologist (Greenpost), Production
Roman Mihalevitch
UX Designer, UX Design Tablets - WebApp
Fabian Burghardt
Designer (Rave.Space) - Event Venue
Opificio31, Milano Space Makers
Via Tortona 31, 20144 Milano
Officina 31 & Quattrocento
Milano Space Makers
Claudia Giorgio Mazzolini
Production & Logistics
Alessandra Salici
Production & Logistics
Marco Ghisla
Production & Logistics - Permits, Health & Safety
Marco Omini
Health & Safety Manager (Nauta-Tech)
Salvatore Allegra
Health & Safety Manager - Catering
Christian
Owner, Café Stendhal - Branding
Robert Gross
Artworker
Benjamin Preuß
Atlantis, Logos & Plinths - Special Thanks To
Milano Design Week
Café Stendhal (great crew catering)
Anyone we’ve forgotten <3
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