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[bensblogbook]

Acoustic Evaluation of the Auditorium and Auditorium Issues

The way in which we hear sound is effected by the way in which a space has been built. The auditorium at the Miskin Theatre is a poor place to set up sound.

The first reason why the auditorium is a poor set up for sound is because it is make of reflective materials. These reflective materials are the shutter for the dock at the back off the space, the bricks that the building is made of and the paint which is over them. These surfaces will effect the acoustics in the room as the sound waves will reflect off the wall and bounce around the space really fast. When the reflect of the wall the waves will collide with each other which in turn will cause the the frequency of the waves to get higher therefore making the sound appear horrible. A way to improve this problem would be to hang blacks around the outside of the auditorium as this will help to absorb some of the sound particles and therefore stop them from colliding with each other.

Another reason why the space is a poor place to set up sound is the fact that the windows to the control room are angled. This again will effect the way in which the sound particles will travel around teh room because firstly the windows are made of a reflective material which will cause the sound particles to bounce off the windows and speed them up and secondly because of the angle that both the windows are at will cause the sound particles to bounce of the windows and travel towards the floor of the space. In order to improve this problem I would suggest either changing the angle of the windows to stop the sound particles being sent to the floor or getting rid of the windows all together as this will stop the particles being sent to the floor of the space and also eliminate the problem of the particles being speed up when they reflect of the windows surface.

The shape of the space is another problem that makes the room a poor place to set up sound. This is because the room is rectangular in shape and therefore will cause the the sound to be constantly bounced around the space at different angles. To improve this problem I would suggest that we knock down the back wall of the the space and make it curved as a curved back wall will help to more evenly spread the sound particles around the room.  

Another problem that will effect the acoustics in the room is the set for the shows that are put in the space. For example if the set was to be made out of metal this would be a problem as it would cause reverberation and again cause the sound particles to be bounced continuously at high speeds around the room and cause them to collide. Also the way at which the set is place will also cause as problem as the sound particles will reverb of the different parts of the set and cause them to be bounced around the room randomly. A way to ensure that this problem does not happen is to have constant discussions with the set designers about how best to lay out the set with regards as to were are speakers are laid out in the space. We can also discuss with the set designer the materials in which the set is going to be made of and make suggestions of alternative materials that can be used. 

The final problem that are space has is feedback. Feedback occurs when the sound that is being sent through the speakers is picked up by the microphones and is then amplified through the F.O.H. P.A., which causes a horrible howling sound. This occurs a lot in our space because on most shows we have are speaker stacks at the front of the stage on both stage right and stage left. This means that when actors with microphones enter the space through the voms they will have to pass the stacks causing the feedback. There are a number of ways in which we can prevent this problem from occurring, the first would be to find a better place to possition are stacks however this is not possible as we have limited space in the auditorium, the second would be to find a new way for the actors to enter the stage so that they don’t walk pass the stacks and the final option would be to Equalize (EQ) the space. EQ is were you level out the frequency’s in a sound system to remove any peaks on the sound wave and help minimize the howling sound created by feedback. EQ will help in minimizing feedback but it will not full prevent it from occurring. 

As well as having acoustic issues the Miskin Theatre also has other issues. The main issue with are theatre is the placement of the voms. The voms are placed on both sides of the auditorium and that is how the audience enter the venue. This means that they have to physically walk on the stage to gain access to the seating bank. For sound Thai is a major issue because we may have speaker stacks on stage right and left which have to powered from under the seating bank. This means that we are running cables across the stage and they are a trip hazard for the audience that are entering. To stop the trip hazard from occur in we would have to tape down the cables to prevent audience members tripping and hurting themselves.

Overall the auditorium in the Miskin Theatre is a poor space in which to set up a sound system but by carrying out the suggestions of improvements written above will help to make the acoustics in the space sound better. Also by changing the way the audience come into the spa e will help to make the auditorium a more effective venue in which to put on a performance.  

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[jamesdixonblogbook]

Unit 69 C1

I will be evaluating the acoustic properties of a performance venue; the performance venue I will be evaluating will be the main space of the Miskin theatre.  The first thing I am going to cover in my evaluation is the issues with the building. The first issue is the walls are bare brick which mean no sound is absorbed and it bounces all-round the room, this can often make an echo effect. This is clear when someone shouts from one end of the building to the other. The shape of the building is also a problem because it is square and not a great distance from the audience to the stge. The whole building is long and not very wide. The height of the building does not help either because it’s not very high there is nowhere for the sound to disappear to.

In order to get round these issues there are certain things done by the theatre. For example to cover the brick walls we hang blacks so the sound is absorbed. In theatre you get blocks of foam on the wall or over the skirting boards this is to absorb the sound and to prevent echo’s. This is one reason why theatres use carpet and not flooring. A theatre will also sound different when the audience is in because you then have a number of people absorbing the sound as well as everything else. So for the Miskin an empty main space will sound different compared to 152 people sat in the audience.  The set also absorbs sound depending on what its made out of, if it’s a metal frame only then this would not really help absorb the sound where as a set covered in polystyrene would absorb lots of sound and prevent echo’s and sound from bouncing everywhere. The final way to improve a venues acoustic sound is to use graphic equalisation which means to EQ the room. This is done by playing a well-known song that you have heard through different playing system so maybe, at parties, in the car, on the radio and any other appliance where you have heard the song. Then listen for the venues reaction weather it will be perfect or need adjusting to get rid of a horrible noise, echo or something that just doesn’t sound right. Adjusting the EQ is easy all you do is listen for the lows and work through the range of hertz for the lowest to the highest. Then you repeat this whilst listening for the highs. To work through each hertz all you have to do is raise the fader to the top at its max and if you like what you hear simply put it back to 0 if you do not like it then drop it depending on how bad you think it is depends on how low you drop it, it’s all about trusting your ears.