The outdoor cinema park had three screens arranged in a triangle, 100 meters apart. Screen A was showing an action movie. Screen B was showing a romantic comedy. Screen C was showing a children's film. At 100 meters, the sound from Screen A's explosion scenes arrived at Screen B's audience approximately 290ms late — right during the romantic comedy's quiet, intimate dialogue scenes.

The couple on screen whispered tender words. The audience leaned in. A 110 dB explosion from Screen A arrived like an acoustic intruder, perfectly timed to the romantic comedy's most vulnerable moment. Children at Screen C heard action movie gunfire mixed with romantic comedy dialogue, creating a confusing narrative that some parents had to explain was not part of the plot.

Sound travels at 343 m/s in standard conditions. At 100 meters, that's 290ms of delay — nearly a third of a second. Low frequencies travel that distance with minimal atmospheric absorption, while high frequencies are attenuated. So what arrived at the adjacent screen was bass-heavy: explosions, thuds, and bass drops stripped of their contextual midrange. Ghost bass from nowhere.

Outdoor cinema and festival design must account for sound propagation between stages. Directional speakers help but cannot eliminate low-frequency radiation.

The Moral: Sound doesn't respect screen boundaries. Use SonaVyx Transfer Function to measure bleed between zones and plan spacing, timing, and directionality accordingly.