Gabriel and Bruno asked me to solve the problem of the acoustics in the main room of the Galpon Theatre.
The problem was that the speech transmission index (STI) was too low, due to an high reverberation time (RT, EDT, T30), about 2.5 sec.
This meant that actors could not be understood well by the audience.
Also, musicians made a great effort to hear themselves, because there were no strong early reflections.
Another important point was that the stage had (has) not a fixed position: it can be anywhere in the room, so the audience.
The goal was to decrease RT to 1,5 sec. (at 500 – 1k Hz), but keeping the same sound pressure level (G), so that the audience could hear actors and non-amplified music at a good level.
The acoustical solutions can be seen from the pictures below: acoustic panels (reflecting on the lower part, absorbing on the upper one) were positioned on the ceiling in order to distribute sound in a better way all over the audience+stage area. On the walls other reflecting panels were positioned in order to “drive” the sound from the actors’ positions toward the audience.
Gabriel Alvarez, Directeur artistique du Centre International du Travail de l’Acteur (C.I.T.A.) et du Studio d’Action Théâtrale (S.A.T.). Il est metteur en scène et pédagogue théâtral.
Bruno De Franceschi, Supervision
Dario Paini, Acoustics