Concert Hall in the Music Learning and Education Center Symphony of the Academy of Music, Katowice
Pracownia Akustyczna Kozłowski designed a complex electroacoustic system for the concert hall in the Music Learning and Education Center of the “Symphony” Academy of Music in Katowice, commonly known as the “Symphony” Concert Hall. Within this commission there were created projects for sound reinforcement of the concert hall and the recording studio.
The electroacoustic design included:
- electroacoustic cabling and signal connections for the entire concert hall,
- audio distributor (splitter),
- wired and wireless microphones,
- front audio console / front of house (FOH) and monitor console,
- concert hall sound system,
- hearing aid system in the concert hall for the hearing impaired,
- electroacoustic system for recording studio.
The concert hall must perform both educational and commercial functions. In order to fulfill the above concert hall functions, stage cabling is foreseen to enable reception of signals from 48 inputs and their distribution to four receivers:
- front mixing console,
- monitor console
- recording console in the recording studio control room,
- connections for external receivers, e.g. for broadcasting vehicles serving recordings and/or transmissions from the concert hall.
Each of the recipients receives a set of audio signals.
In the auditorium of the concert hall there is a removable stand for the sound engineer. Monitor console can be placed directly on stage or in the backstage of the concert hall near the audio splitter and in the vicinity of the stage manager stand.
The concert hall sound system uses a technique allowing for directional propagation of low frequencies. Appropriate placement and tuning of subwoofers allowed for a significant reduction in sound pressure level for low frequencies on stage in relation to the first rows of the audience.
Broadband sets were located and tuned in such a way as to ensure that the concert hall obtains the correct sound image consistent with the sound naturally coming from the stage to the audience.
All concert hall loudspeaker devices are controlled from independent channels of multi-channel multi-tasking processor. This solution allows to fully tune the sound system to the acoustics of the concert hall. Concert hall’s sound system was realized with active speaker sets.
Recording system enables multi-track recording of events taking place in the concert hall with simultaneous mixing of signals for parallel stereophonic recording. Recording studio equipment also allows for subsequent mixing of multi-track recordings to create the final mix for the needs of phonographic publications documenting events taking place in the concert hall.