Sustainable Concert Hall Theatre

Auditorium with eco-friendly acoustics

The 3,400 cubic meters Apfel Theatre Concert Hall, in Croatia, is a multipurpose hall mostly used for cinema screenings and speech applications. This auditorium accommodated an acoustic treatment solution according to a concept design developed by the Vicoustic Project Team.

For this large space, the acoustic proposal used the panels selected by the client Flat Panel VMT and Flat Panel PET on the walls and ceiling. These sound panels are manufactured with PET, produced mostly from recycled plastic that are also safe for air quality, making them a sustainable solution. With the implementation of this sound panels, the concert hall managed to achieve a better control over the Reverberation Time (RT) and also became a sustainable auditorium.

RT, Clarity and Speech improved

From the analysis taken, the acoustic treatment solutions proposed are likely to produce a very significant improvement in terms of the venue’s acoustic characteristics, namely for the three acoustic parameters analysed (RT, Clarity and Speech Transmission Index). Our team concluded that the reverberation time (RT) at 500Hz before treatment is approximately 2.5s and after the treatment is approximately 0.68s, a value that follow the guideline for a hall of this volume and application. Considerably high values of clarity were achieved for the audience area, with improvements of approximately over 16 dB when considering acoustic treatment within the audience.

Regarding the Speech Transmission Index, with no acoustic treatment, Fair results were achieved on thee floor audience area - values between approximately 0.45. After the treatment, Good and Excellent results were achieved on the floor audience area - where values between approximately 0.62 and 0.75 were achieved.

The installation of the acoustic panels was completed on October 2022 by Audion d.o.o., on time for the opening day of the Apfel Theatre Concert Hall, in the coastal region of Dalmatia, in Croatia.