Professional Sound - June 2019 | Page 42

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.