The Acoustics of Vineyard Halls, is it so Great After all?

Abstract

Many contemporary concert halls are so called surround or vineyard design, in which audience members gather around the orchestra. However, not so many articles on the acoustics of such halls have been published. This article presents the acoustical differences of vineyard and shoebox designs. A recently opened vineyard-type hall, Helsinki Music Centre, is used as a case study, and we discuss its perceptual acoustic qualities and investigate the reasons for subjective observations with objective room-acoustic measurements. In particular, we focus on factors affecting the perception of music dynamics. Results from the objective parameters and spatiotemporal analysis show that the sound field is dominated by the direct sound and early energy in the median plane. These findings are in agreement with the perceptual effects, and resemble the acoustic conditions of another vineyard hall, Berlin Philharmonie. A comparison to a classical shoebox hall reveals fundamental differences in the structure of the sound field.