Abstract
The absence of disturbing background noise is a fundamental minimum requirement for performances in opera houses and theaters. Although the acoustic design of such venues has reached some maturity and specifications for maximum allowable background levels can be found in almost every other textbook on auditorium design, it can be observed that tender documents show a noteworthy variance in published requirements. Oftentimes, the levels that need to be achieved fall significantly below commonly quoted reference values. In order to keep the specifications at a reasonable level and to reduce costs for the (public) developer and builder it seems reasonable to review long-serving guidelines and determine if they suffice for today’s performance practice.This work presents limits for the stage machinery based on measurements conducted during live performances at four well-known performance art spaces in Germany. To ensure inaudibility of the stage machinery, the limits refer to the quietest performance moments without stage machinery noise, music, speech, or other noise events. Based on these limits the stage machinery developer receives a guideline, which helps to design high-quality machinery in terms of noise. Furthermore, these limits help to refine the noise requirements for stage machinery in tender documents.
Highlights
Administrations of opera houses and theaters strive to impress their audiences with great performances using lights, sounds, drama, and much more
This study reports on acoustic measurements during live performances in 4 venues
Lmin 1s shows the highest difference of 3 dB at 16 Hz, which is outside the frequency range important for room acoustics
Summary
Administrations of opera houses and theaters strive to impress their audiences with great performances using lights, sounds, drama, and much more. The only possible solutions are replacing the disturbing equipment with quieter products or avoiding the scenic use of noisy hardware in the first place. This may not always be possible, especially for bigger machines like turntable stages, stage wagons and stage elevators [1,2], especially if those are essential for providing important scenic movements. For this reason, noise should be considered in the design process of stage equipment
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