GREG BOLTON, SMITH + ANDERSEN
PETER BERNATSKY, ADVANCE PRO
Sidney Harman Hall in Washington, DC; the
Daniels Spectrum cultural hub and its adjacent
Paintbox condominiums in Toronto; and, more
recently, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre.
“As designers, we’re challenged by and
respond to changes in art forms as they be-
come increasingly interdisciplinary,” she begins.
“As people who coordinate infrastructure in
buildings and in renovations, we’re challenged
to make almost every space a performance
area. Lobbies, hallways, lounges – all have to
be performance-ready.”
Those performances could consist of a
pre-show reception, a pop-up DJ or musical
performance, or a performance that extends
from a designated hall into a public space.
Mallard cites the NAC’s atrium as an ex-
ample, with its ceiling-mounted spider hoists
for lighting and audio infrastructure. “The new
atrium on the north side has a stone floor,
glass wall, and is right up against the concrete
wall of the original building,” she explains.
“The roof structure is wood so you have all
these hard surfaces. The ceiling has to do a lot
of work acoustically, providing diffusion, and
we’ve got inlay panels for acoustic absorption
to deal with reflections.”
For performance applications, discussions
about the acoustic character of a space, Mal-
lard says, begin immediately. “If we’re looking
at a new concert hall or a renovation, we’re at
the table with the theatre designer and the
acoustician from day one. Anything we want
to do must be discussed at length and has to
be understood acoustically and architecturally.”
Opera and classical performances and
the spaces they’re performed in are increasing-
ly incorporating and encouraging interactivity
and connectivity. “Wi-Fi everywhere is a given
now, and the NAC encourages patrons to
tweet, re-tweet, to post on Instagram… So the
venue and patrons are active in creating ‘buzz’
about the NAC in the media.”
The evolving use of space is directly
related to how clients believe end users wish
to experience an event and, to a degree,
how they communicate that experience to
others. Increasingly, use of phones and other
devices is accepted and welcomed rather
than prohibited.
42 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
TED PARNELL, ADVANCE PRO
“The technology is so much a part of our
lives that, for example, the NAC orchestra has
to embrace it. Every performing arts organiza-
tion has the challenge of attracting audiences
and reinventing itself in order to engage with
younger people. Technology is part of life, but
the low-quality, two-minute video I take on my
phone has a different place in media than a pro-
fessional recording of an NAC orchestra concert.”
And, frankly, audience expectations
of what they will experience in a dedicated
performance setting – be it an atrium or audi-
torium – are tempered by the character and
atmosphere of that space. “Their expectations
are different going into a 2,300-seat perfor-
mance hall than they would be at home,” Mal-
lard says, citing the hush you can literally feel
in your head in an acoustically dead room, or
the sense of space experienced – audibly and
psychologically – in a reverberant cathedral.
“The conditions are different enough that ex-
pectations aren’t transferred.”
There is a commonality between the
architects and other professionals working
to provide clients with all they need to ac-
complish their vision and prepare for future
applications. “We build in as much flexibility
as possible – plug-in points, power, and data
– everywhere. When we design something,
we sit down with the client and go through
various options about how the space could be
used, and then when it’s built, we often have
this situation where the client is using it in a
way that was never anticipated,” Mallard says,
laughing. “We go through two dozen options,
but we know there’s going to be 50, so it’s fu-
ture proofing and building in as much flexibil-
ity as possible because people will be creative
and say, ‘Let’s turn this upside down.’”
As audio technology is deployed in more
commonplace, daily-use spaces, aesthetics
remain a key point of consideration. When
I mention that, typically, loudspeakers and
aesthetics don’t play well together, Mallard
chuckles. “But the footprints of components
and systems are becoming smaller,” she notes.
“Case in point, in the NAC’s Southam Hall, the
audio system supports orchestral and rock
shows, so there’s large array speakers, sidefills,
and backfill under the balcony. The latter are
JENNIFER MALLARD, DIAMOND
SCHMITT ARCHITECTS
smaller than they used to be, so we can inte-
grate them architecturally for less visual impact.”
For orchestral concerts, the audio system
is utilized only for speech, such as opening
remarks by Music Director Alexander Shelley.
That said, Mallard points out: “If technology
can be seen, it’s often assumed that it’s in use
even if it isn’t.” That in itself can get in the way,
if only psychologically, of a patron’s experience,
particularly during an orchestral offering. “The
loudspeakers are always bigger than we want
them to be,” she says, noting that they can be
lifted out of view during performances at the
NAC, which solves the issue.
Psychologically, audibly, visually. Consumer
demand, in tandem with advances in the pro-
fessional and personal domains, will ultimately
impact every space we pass through. How that
plays out from live entertainment events to
the workplace and beyond remains to be seen.
The “silent concert” employing head-
phones for all audience members is already a
thing; it’s not a stretch to envision audience
expectations trending toward a more individu-
ally-customizable experience.
As fascinating as that is to contemplate,
the more control an audience member exerts,
the more a given event may depart from
the intent and vision of those behind it, and
the more likely it is a communal experience
will become more about the individual. That
means it’s less likely you’ll experience the
unexpected, which is a crucial part of a live
performance of any kind.
“The way the world is going, for whatev-
er reason, and I don’t want to sound like my
father, but it seems like the experience itself
isn’t enough,” Bolton says. That’s something he
and his peers in the industry are constantly
working to address in their designs and instal-
lations, and as with pretty much anything to
do with technology, the results could enhance
the experience just as easily as they might de-
tract from it. That’s why expertise and collabo-
ration between disciplines remain so valuable
in this rapidly-advancing landscape.
Kevin Young is a Toronto-based musician and
freelance writer.