Vibration isolation for world-class performance spaces, Part I: A brief history

Abstract

World-class performance spaces are typically located in central urban areas, often surrounded by sources of groundborne noise such as subways and streetcar lines or sources of structureborne noise within the building itself which, if not addressed, can be disruptive to the performances inside the buildings. The advent of digital recording within performance spaces has also been a major motivation for reducing background noise, often to levels below the threshold of human perception. The history and development of vibration isolation incorporated into such spaces will be discussed.