Outdoor Amphitheater Research Articles

Outdoor Amphitheater Planning in Mastplan Activities using Autocad 2 D and Sketchup 3 D Applications

SMK Negeri 1 Sebatik Barat is a school expected to realize SMK Agrotourism, which has a land area of about 35 Hectares. The research "Outdoor Amphitheater Planning In Mastplan Activities Using Autocad 2D And Sketchup 3D Applications” itself was developed so that the existing land can be utilized properly, which planning uses 2D (Autocad) and 3D (SketchUp) applications. The object of this research is Liang Bunyu, West Sebatik, Nunukan Regency, North Kalimantan. Data collection uses primary methods where data is collected directly. The results of this study indicate that SMK Negeri 1 Sebatik Barat requires an Outdoor Amphitheater design plan to support the acceleration of the realization of SMK Agrotourism quickly.

Noise abatement study for an amplified music outdoor amphitheater

Amplified music outdoors poses many challenges in regard to sound abatement and requires a multi-disciplinary approach that includes sound system design and monitoring, programming considerations, architectural and landscaping sound control elements, and conditions for outdoor sound propagation including atmospheric, ground impedance, barrier and topographic effects. An interdisciplinary study was performed on the Brushy Creek Amphitheater in Hutto, Texas involving a local sound reinforcement company, audio equipment manufacturer, a local acoustical consulting firm, and a national atmospheric research group. This paper will provide the elements and findings of a multi-disciplinary investigation to minimize impact of a newly located amphitheater on the local community.

A Whole School Agreement: Professional Learning with a Focus on Environmental STEM

ABSTRACT Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is important to producing students prepared for problem solving, critical analysis, and collaborative approaches to address the needs of the 21st century. For meaningful and intentional STEM instruction to occur, teachers need support and professional development. This paper presents a case study of a year-long professional learning project connecting the school’s environmental science focus to improving mathematics instruction. A whole school agreement bounds this particular case. The school faculty initiated the project and included developing a mathematics trail to connect with their nature trail, garden, and an outdoor amphitheater. The quantitative and qualitative data reveal significant changes in mathematics practices and teachers’ beliefs about the teaching and learning of mathematics. Since this case study revealed that whole school professional development in STEM could improve the teaching and learning of mathematics, implications for practice and research are discussed.

Outdoor concert monitoring, community noise, and the Cavanaugh Criterion

Sound from outdoor concerts and other sources can be challenging to measure, especially in the midst of ambient noises and environmental effects. It can be even more challenging to evaluate the data toward resolution of complaints and satisfaction for neighbors. In the mid 1980s through the 1990s, Bill Cavanaugh was deeply involved in important projects involving measurement and especially evaluation of outdoor concert sound levels, and he became a recognized leader in the field, consulting on amphitheater and outdoor venue sound and addressing community relations throughout the country. This presentation will review one of the most significant projects, then called Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts, now the Xfinity Center, in Mansfield, MA, an outdoor amphitheater with total 16 000 seats (now nearly 20 000), in which the Cavanaugh Criterion took shape, more in response to the many touring rock shows (and for which one of the first “green-yellow-red lights” was developed for the sound mixers' easy visual reference and better sound level control) than as the summer home of The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Recent application of the Cavanaugh Criterion for concert level evaluation of loud, powerful sound systems will also be reviewed, along with implications for application to a much wider range of possible outdoor and even indoor noise intrusions.

Taming reverberation in an outdoor amphitheatre—The Ford

The historic Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood, CA, recently completed an overall renovation and expansion. The centerpiece is the 1,200-seat outdoor amphitheater, which features a dramatic arroyo backdrop. The side walls, rear wall, towers, and house flooring were built of concrete in 1931 after a brush fire destroyed the original 1920 wood structure. Several sound-absorptive treatments had been applied to the walls over the years previous to our involvement, but excessive reverberation and some anomalous reflections remained. The new design features an expanded “sound wall” that helps to mitigate highway noise while providing optimal lighting and control positions, and offering an opportunity to improve the acoustical treatment scheme. The result is a unique installation of decorative perforated-metal panels that tame the reverberation, especially in the low frequencies. Assorted design challenges, apparent arroyo hillside contributions, and the resultant reverberation will be discussed.

Soundscape analysis and modeling of outdoor gathering spaces

Case studies of three outdoor gathering spaces will be presented to illustrate the soundscape concepts embodied in each. Case study 1 is an outdoor amphitheater that is located near a residential neighborhood. Concerts at the amphitheater raised concerns from residents about acoustical measuring methods. Case study 2 is a lively restaurant with a large outdoor seating area where guests eat and listen to music played by a single performer or small group. Case study 3 is a series of outdoor restaurants that do not have live entertainment. The use of different types of soundwalks to capture the acoustical signature of these venues; the acoustical communities involved in each situation; taxonomies of the sounds that occur at each; the specific acoustical events that comprise the ambient sound in each case; acoustical measurements and modeling used in the analysis of each venue; the extent of the acoustical rooms for performing and listening; an acoustical calendar; the design of the acoustical interventions; and live experiments to document ranges of conditions to residents are documented and discussed.

Excessive reverberance in an outdoor amphitheater

The historic Ford Theatre in Hollywood, CA, is undergoing an overall renovation and expansion. Its centerpiece is the inexplicably asymmetrical 1200 seat outdoor amphitheater, built of concrete in 1931 after the original 1920 wood structure was destroyed by a brush fire in 1929, and well before the adjacent Hollywood Freeway was nearly as noisy as now. Renovation includes reorienting seating for better symmetry while maintaining the historic concrete, and improving audio, lighting, and support spaces. Sited within an arroyo overlooking a busy highway, and in view of the Hollywood Bowl, the new design features an expanded “sound wall” that will help to mitigate highway noise while providing optimal lighting and control positions. New sound-absorptive treatments will address the Ford’s excessive reverberation, currently more than might be anticipated for an entirely outdoor space. The remarkably uniform distribution of ambient noise and apparent contributions by the arroyo to the reverberation will be discussed, along with assorted design challenges.

Merengue Meets the Symphony Orchestra: Interrogating "Music as One" and the "Terrific" Musical Experience at the Hollywood Bowl

on the evening of Tuesday, august 14, 2012, the los angeles Philharmonic inaugurated the second installment of the festival Americas & Americans, at its summer home, the Hollywood bowl. The program would feature latin american symphonic classics and the musical encounter of the los angeles Philharmonic (hereafter, the la Phil) with the Dominican artist Juan luis Guerra and his band, 4.40 (Cuatro Cuarenta). Throngs descended into the famous outdoor amphitheater hours before the concert, congregating in the restaurants and stores that abound in the bowl’s courtyards. The excitement was audible in the cheerful bilingual chatter that emanated from a crowd seemingly as diverse as the population of los angeles. a few minutes after 8:00 p.m., the la Phil opened the evening with the national anthem of the united States, followed by mexican composer Jose Pablo moncayo’s Huapango. after the long applause, Gustavo Dudamel addressed the audience, (which included this author):

Another ‘‘new’’ metric for outdoor amphitheater criteria

Since the late 1960s, when amplified musical performances began being held there, Atlanta’s open-air Chastain Park Amphitheater has been the source of enormous friction between the City, the venue’s owner, and the wealthy, politically-connected residential community abutting the Park. To identify the characteristics of concert event sound to which neighbors are particularly sensitive, sound levels were monitored during 17 concerts, ranging from quiet jazz and classical performances to rock-and-roll and hip-hop. Community sound levels were monitored at 25 locations, including nine where measurements were made simultaneously inside and outside homes. The study team confirmed that low-frequency sound was the one feature of concert-related sound that community residents identified as most problematic, but that only a relatively small proportion of the Chastain concerts resulted in any significant community annoyance. After assessing the spectral characteristics of the most troublesome concerts, a new compliance metric has been proposed to address low-frequency annoyance issues: a two-tiered exceedence threshold, based on 1-minute LEQ levels in the 63 Hz octave band measured at the rear of the amphitheater, with a concert-event ‘‘exceedence’’ defined to be either a 1-minute LEQ(63 Hz) level greater than 95 dB or more than ten 1-minute LEQ(63 Hz) levels greater than 90 dB.

Computer analysis of sound recordings from two Anasazi sites in northwestern New Mexico

Sound recordings were made at a natural outdoor amphitheater in Chaco Canyon and in a reconstructed great kiva at Aztec Ruins. Recordings included computer-generated tones and swept sine waves, classical concert flute, Native American flute, conch shell trumpet, and prerecorded music. Recording equipment included analog tape deck, digital minidisk recorder, and direct digital recording to a laptop computer disk. Microphones and geophones were used as transducers. The natural amphitheater lies between the ruins of Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl. It is a semicircular arc in a sandstone cliff measuring 500 ft. wide and 75 ft. high. The radius of the arc was verified with aerial photography, and an acoustic ray trace was generated using cad software. The arc is in an overhanging cliff face and brings distant sounds to a line focus. Along this line, there are unusual acoustic effects at conjugate foci. Time history analysis of recordings from both sites showed that a 60-dB reverb decay lasted from 1.8 to 2.0 s, nearly ideal for public performances of music. Echoes from the amphitheater were perceived to be upshifted in pitch, but this was not seen in FFT analysis. Geophones placed on the floor of the great kiva showed a resonance at 95 Hz.

Medical control of mass gatherings: can paramedics perform without physicians on-site?

Evaluate the experience of paramedic personnel at mass gatherings in the absence of on-site physicians. Retrospective review of patients evaluated by paramedics with emergency medical services (EMS) medical control. First-aid facility operated by paramedics at an outdoor amphitheater involving 32 (predominantly rock music) concerts in accordance with the Chicago EMS System, June through September 1990. A total of 438 patients (< or = 0.1% on-site population) were evaluated. Presentations to the first-aid facility were viewed as if the patient was presenting to an ambulance. Transportation to an emergency department was strongly recommended for all encounters. Time from presentation to the first-aid facility until disposition was limited to 30 minutes in the absence of on-line [direct] medical control. Refusal of care was accepted. On-line [direct] medical control with the EMS resource hospital was initiated as needed. Off-line [indirect] medical control consisted of weekly reviews of all patients records and periodic site visits. Of the 438 patients, 366 (84%) refused further care, including 31 patients (7%) who refused advanced life support (ALS) level care. Seventy-two patients (16%) were transported; 37 by ALS and 35 by basic life support (BLS) units. On-line [direct] medical control was initiated in all ALS patients that were transported as well as for those who refused care. No known deaths or adverse outcomes occurred, based on lack of inquiries or complaints from the local EMS system, emergency departments receiving transported patients, law enforcement agencies, 9-1-1 emergency response providers, venue management, or security. No request for medical records from law firms have occurred. Problems noted initially were poor documentation and a tendency not to document all encounters (e.g., dispensing band-aids, tampons, earplugs, etc.). Concerns noted included: initial and subsequent vital signs, times of arrival, interventions, dispositions, and patient conditions of refusal. Specific problems with documentation of refusals at disposition included: appropriate mental status, speech, and gait; release with an accompanying family member or friend; and parental notification and approval of care for minors. There also was an initial tendency not to establish on-line [direct] medical control for ALS refusal or BLS medicolegal issues. The medical system configuration modeled after practices of prehospital care, demonstrates physicians did not need to be on-site when adequate EMS medical control existed with less than 30 minutes on-scene time.

Public opinion and interest group positions on open-space issues in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA: Implications for resource management

The purpose of this research was to elicit and compare the open-space preferences of citizens and openspace experts in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. A randomly selected sample of 492 citizens and 35 open-space experts participated in a telephone survey during May 5–18, 1986. The following hypothesis was tested and used as a guideline for the study: HO1: There is no significant difference between respondents' status and preference for open space in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The hypothesis was rejected. Findings confirmed respondents' status affected preference for open space. Of the eight issues on which the citizen and expert groups were compared, five recorded significant differences in response profiles. The open-space expert group was significantly more supportive of using open space to accommodate offroad vehicle facilities, wildlife preserves, a citywide recreational trail, and a trail system along the arroyos and city ditches. The citizen sample was significantly more supportive of using open space to accommodate overnight camping facilities. Both groups equally supported using open space to accommodate an outdoor amphitheater, outdoor education facilities, and rafting, kayaking, and canoeing facilities. The finding indicated that expert preferences did not represent an aggregate of citizen preferences for managing open-space resources. Understanding both expert and citizen positions will facilitate decision-making processes and help resolve environmental disputes.

Physical and political problems of outdoor amphitheater site selection

Technology, economics, and social attitudes have spawned a phenomenon known as “the rock concert.” Audiences of three thousand to three-hundred thousand attend these events daily in theaters, coliseums, amphitheaters, pavilions, stadiums, race tracks, and parks throughout the United States. The stage stacks used to amplify these events produce sound pressure levels of over 115 dB 4 ft from the loudspeaker assemblies. In enclosed buildings, these levels, though potentially dangerous to those exposed, rarely produce problems related to violations of community noise standards. However, performances in amphitheaters, music pavilions, and park settings are another matter and complaints are mounting regarding the noise pollution created by these concerts. This paper discusses the physical and political problems related to finding sites for new facilities in urban and suburban locations. Experiences in Concord, California and Dallas, Texas are described with examples of solutions developed to meet local ordinances and reduce annoyance factors.

Acoustical impact of a large outdoor amphitheater on surrounding residences

A 3800-seat amphitheater offers amplified popular music concerts within hilly and densely populated terrain. Measured sound levels within the amphitheater and the residential community from 0.5 to 1.25 miles away are presented. Music levels are compared to neighborhood ambient levels and complaint records. Additional attenuation-versus-distance data for rough terrain are offered as well as the noise reduction expected from a fabric enclosure.

The Outdoor Amphitheater

The Outdoor Amphitheater