Project Overview
This acoustic tuning project serves a 380-seat professional drama theatre in Edinburgh, UK, hosting stage plays, monologue performances and small-scale musicals. The original historic stone building with a high vaulted ceiling had prominent mid-low frequency standing waves and uneven sound field distribution. Speech intelligibility was poor for audience members in the rear stalls, and stage performances lacked vocal clarity and dynamic range. The theatre required acoustic tuning optimized for spoken word performance while preserving the building’s historic interior character.
Solution Configuration
- Side & rear auditorium walls: Grooved and perforated resonant acoustic panel system paired with mineral wool infill and rear air cavity structure is installed. Based on acoustic simulation of the theatre’s volume and vault geometry, the slot and perforation ratio is precisely adjusted to target 250–1000Hz mid-low frequency standing waves. The overall system NRC reaches 0.90, achieving balanced full-band sound absorption optimized for dramatic speech.
- Ceiling area: High-density smooth fiberglass acoustic ceiling tiles (NRC 0.90–0.95) are laid at ceiling perimeter to control overhead reflections and optimize overall sound field uniformity across all seating levels.
All panels hold EN 13501 Class A fire certification, with impact-resistant surfaces suitable for public performance venues. The project was completed during a scheduled theatre maintenance break, construction period 32 days.
Project Results
Final acoustic testing shows speech intelligibility improves by 46% across all seating areas, with dialogue clearly audible even from the back stalls. Reverberation time falls within the optimal range for dramatic spoken word performance. The theatre can host professional drama productions without supplementary acoustic reinforcement, and audience satisfaction scores for sound quality increase by 38%.
