Akustikon - Consulting company specialising in acoustics, vibration and AV engineering

Opera Houses Concert halls Theatres Culture houses Educational facilities Industrial plants, vibration and structure-borne sound

			Educational facilities Akustikon has planned numerous schools, universities and colleges. Here is a small selection.
		Room-acoustical measurement in the auditorium of Artisten, Gothenburg, Sweden.	Artisten - the School of Theatre, Opera and Music at Gothenburg University Complete acoustic planning of new and converted premises. Includes a 400-seat concert auditorium, a chamber music room, organ rooms, practice rooms, an electronic music studio, theatre studios, and a music theatre with approximately 150 seats. The auditorium has a variable reverberation time of 1.6- 2.2 seconds. During the planning, we tested the acoustics in test rooms for the practice and teaching rooms. Ray calculations were performed for all the larger rooms. The large organ room, containing a French Romantic Cavaillé-Coll organ, was designed in close collaboration with the Dutch organ builder. To provide reference values for the new room, we performed ray calculations on an older room where the acoustics were already known. Read more at the website of Artisten.	"..at times, the string section sounded exquisite to my ears..." Göteborgsposten newspaper, 4 June 1992, on the auditorium
			New student union building, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg The building has an open layout with a large, single foyer area. Next to this is the main lecture hall, Chalmers's new parade hall. It has approximately 450 seats and distinctive, fully-glazed side walls. The hall's acoustics and black-out function have been solved by means of rotatable ribbed sections, which can be closed to produce a blackout effect, extra sound insulation and optimised speech acoustics. Because the hall is too small for larger music performances, we suggested an electroacoustical reverberation system. The building's ensemble room is designed for large ensembles, and its acoustics can be varied using selected fabrics. The room can be split in two with a partition. The gymnasium is directly above the study areas, which called for special vibration insulation solutions. The gymnasium has a floating floor mounted on insulation pads over a heavy concrete construction. Akustikon also added tuned vibration dampers suspended on the beams, to further reduce disturbance. The architect, Gert Wingårdh, was awarded the 2001 Kasper Sahlin Architectural Prize for the building design.
		Stora hörsalen.	School of Education and Communication at Jönköping University (Högskolan för lärarutbildning och kommunikation i Jönköping, HLK), Sweden The Jönköping School of Education and Communication was completed for the start of the 2000 spring term. It has many rooms that require a high-quality acoustic environment. Besides several lecture halls, including one for 400 people, it has music rooms and TV and radio studios designed for the latest technology. The acoustics in the main lecture hall are optimised for speech, but also work well for many music performances. Akustikon was in charge of the acoustical planning for the entire building, which has an area of approximately 19,000 m2 BTA, and cost a total of 280 million SEK. Read more at the website of the Jönköping School of Education and Communication.
		3D-visualisering av stora aulan.	Södertörn University (Södertörns Högskola) Great care went into designing the large assembly hall for 700 people. The hall has a pronounced fan shape, similar to a Greek amphitheatre, meaning that even the back seats are close to the podium. We performed extensive ray calculations, optimising the hall's surfaces for speech from the podium. The stage has the capacity corresponding to the "Yellow Stage" (Gul Scen) grading of the National Swedish Touring Theatre (Riksteatern). The university also has a "black box" theatre for experimental media, music, theatre and teaching. To prevent noisy functions from disturbing other activities, this room was designed as a "room inside the room", i.e. it is completely insulated from the rest of the building. The acoustics of the adjacent lecture hall for 160 people have been optimised for speech, but with an upper grade reverberation level. This allows small scale musical functions, such as string quartet performances, to be held there. Read more at the website of Södertörn University.
			Sturegymnasiet, Halmstad, Sweden An upper secondary school specialising in media studies. New building containing a theatre/ assembly hall for approximately 200 people, a dance room, a TV studio, a sound studio, a control room, etc. Conversion of existing buildings into music practice rooms and other teaching rooms. Read more at the website of Sturegymnasiet.
			Lecture hall complex for Halmstad University (Högskolan i Halmstad) A complex with three lecture halls. The largest hall, Malcussalen, seats 300 people. The rooms are optimised for speech. Thanks to the excellent room acoustics, the main hall is often used without any sound reinforcement of speech whatsoever. The hall has also been used successfully for concerts. Read more at the website of Halmstad University.
			Music school in Kópvaogur, Iceland A music school with a chamber music hall (Salurinn), practice and ensemble rooms, a sound studio, etc. The hall was originally conceived as a private orchestra rehearsal and concert hall for the school, but grew to become a public concert hall seating approximately 350 people. The hall, which has a high ceiling (approx. 13 m, with a volume of approx. 3,700 m3) due to its compact floor plan, is equipped with diffusing ceiling reflectors, and wall surfaces optimised for side-angled sound reflections and diffusion. The reverberation time can be varied from approx. 1.8 seconds (maximum) to approx. 1.3 seconds by means of rolling curtains. The hall has become extremely popular, with over 100 public concerts per year.

	Akustikon, a team at Norconsult AB Theres Svenssons gata 11, Box 8774,402 76 Gothenburg, Sweden Tel +46 (0)31-700 10 90, Fax +46 (0)31-50 70 15 info@akustikon.se ©2009 Akustikon/Norconsult AB