At Vivid Sydney 2023, May 26 to June 17, visitors will be able to discover a whole new way of experiencing immersive, super-sized light and animations with their own personalized audio.

The Cinewav says this innovation means spectators can fully appreciate the aural design of Vivid Sydney artworks from anywhere: on the water, from across the harbor, from the top of a building and more.

Cinewav is a patented world-first technology that allows users to listen to a “clear, crisp soundtrack” on their smartphone in-sync with a public show, just like Vivid Sydney’s  “Written in the Stars “ nightly drone show or projections like the Sydney Opera House Lighting of the Sails: Life Enlivened 2023, Harbour Life on the HMAS Vampire, Inside Out at Customs House, Barerarerungar at Museum of Contemporary Art and Our Connected City.

Here’s a news story about the festival with some of the projection-mapping:

For “Lighting of the Sails: Life Enlivened 2023” by John Olsen and Curiious at Sydney Opera House, Fabio Nardo, creative director at creative technologist Curiious: Immersive Impact explores the imaginative potential of Cinewav: “Curiious are always exploring new trends in immersive communications. Large-scale animations tend to be purely visual. Cinewav gives us even greater creative freedom so that visitors can intimately experience the art in a sensitive and more immersive way.”

Cinewav has worked with local expert suppliers such as TDC – Technical Direction Company, The Electric Canvas and The P.A. People to integrate its app into many spectacular light installations at Vivid Sydney 2023. All visitors must do is to download the Cinewav app to their smart phone from Apple, Google Play or Huawei AppGallery, get the audio ticket and press ‘Play’- and remember to bring earphones/headphones!

Vivid Sydney’s Festival Director, Gill Minervini, said that Cinewav’s technology would help bring the activations and installations to life along the 8.5km Light Walk.

“We’re excited to continue our successful relationship with Cinewav to inspire and delight festival-goers with cutting edge technology and creativity. Cinewav’s technology allows us to deliver audio that matches the quality and scale of the visuals of Vivid Sydney, offering an exciting and immersive experience,” Minervini said.

Cinewav Founder, Jason Chan added: “Bringing high-fidelity sound that is incredibly scalable to each individual person is going to be a game changer for visitors at Vivid Sydney. We are already receiving record breaking downloads of the app this year. People around the harbor area including on cruise ships or in restaurants will be able to experience the astonishing visuals in perfect sync with the bespoke soundtrack.”

The official opening ceremony is “First Light” at Campbells Cove, which will be broadcast across the Light Walk on opening night and on an edited version every night of the Festival before “Lights On.” “First Light” is curated by Sydney’s First Nations Adviser Rhoda Roberts AO.

Written in the Stars Vivid Sydney Drone Show with soundtrack by The Planets by English composer Gustav Holst, remixed by Peewee Ferris nightly at 9:10 p.m. on May 28 and 31 and June 7, 11, 14 and 17.