Project Brief

The project
As part of the building project for this school, a new rehearsal and performance hall (KIPO) is designed. This hall is intended to be a versatile multipurpose performance and rehearsal venue. Acoustically the hall is designed to meet the requirements of Norwegian Standard NS 8178:2014 for rehearsal and performance spaces. Therefore, the acoustic volume and interior finishing are designed for optimum loudness in combination with a natural Reverberation Time of 0.9 second (500/1,000 Hz octave bands) for amplified speech and music, as well as to allow implementation of an assisted acoustic system to increase the Reverberation Time, considering other relevant parameters such as acceptable loudness (Strength G) for a wide range of rehearsals and performances.

The hall is designed as a flat-floor auditorium in which the audience and the stage area are in the same acoustic volume. There is no separate stage house or fly tower. The audience seating is in front of the stage on telescopically retractable raked platforms (amphitheatre) to provide good sight lines as well as a strong direct sound (hearing lines). There are 339 seats as amphitheatre plus 50 on stage floor level. The stage is expected to be equipped with theatre curtains: a backdrop and legs on either side. There will be a few trusses for stage lighting of theatre productions etc.

Our work
SIAP has deployd the latest Mark V-64 / Dante processor which gives the room all possible acoustic wishes that are conceivable. The design comprises 48 uniformly distributed loudspeakers and eight microphones. Each loudspeaker (channel) has unique dedicated impuls responses (early and late reflections). We extend special thanks for the outstanding cooperation with our Norwegian system integrator, Benum Norway AS. Their exceptional work in building and setting up the entire AAS system is sincerely appreciated.

The result
A versatile, beautiful culture hall that is acoustically adjustable to all types of performances by simply selecting the appropriate presets. All the loudspeakers are driven by 8-channel Dante amplifiers (LEA), and one can easily switch between SIAP presets using a dedicated fixed control panel, an iPad, or via QSYS, which makes life easy for anyone assisting with the performance at that moment.

The ambiance preset ‘lifts’ the hall acoustics when using a PA system. The speech control function makes announcements prior to or after concerts clean and intelligible; when activated, the active acoustics decrease by 12dB during speech and subtly increase to nominal levels afterward. The RT (Reverberation Time) can be selected between 1.0 and 3.0 seconds in a number of steps based on the just noticeable difference of about 10% between presets. This range includes presets for ambiance with a PA, Theater,  Brass band, Piano (Jazz/Pop/Classical), chamber music, medium or large orchestra, vocal group, and choir. Additionally, there are three surround presets created which can route the 16 line inputs to loudspeaker (groups).

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