Perfecting the Outdoor Concert Experience: Study

Newswise — Each year, thousands of Canadian music fans attend outdoor concerts and festivals across the country. But are festival-goers getting the best acoustic experience for their buck? Not always, according to one Ryerson researcher and his former graduate student, who aim to fix the problem.

Architectural science professor Ramani Ramakrishnan is an acoustics engineer who supervised the research of Ben Gaum, a 2010 graduate of Ryerson’s master of architecture program. Gaum’s thesis, “Sound Created Form,” evaluated the acoustics of temporary outdoor music performance facilities. While much research has been done on the optimal acoustic design for conventional performance spaces such as those used for music, drama and speech, little investigation has been devoted to the acoustics of outdoor spaces used by many festivals.

“Sound Created Form” was awarded the prestigious Robert Bradford Newman Student Medal, an international prize that recognizes excellence in architecture, architectural engineering and the application of acoustical design principles. In 2009, this medal was awarded to only 11 students worldwide.

A musician, Gaum concentrated his research on the temporary outdoor performance venues used for the Toronto, Montreal and Atlantic (Halifax) jazz festivals. Gaum’s ultimate goal was to create an ideal concept for a temporary outdoor music festival venue.

According to Ramakrishnan, “There are two reasons why it’s particularly important to study the acoustics of temporary outdoor music venues. It’s important that audiences can hear the music and that musicians can hear themselves.”

Gaum’s research encompassed a comparison of qualitative and quantitative data sets. The former involved 30 surveys completed by musicians, technicians and engineers on site at each of the three jazz festivals. Survey participants at each festival listened to the same song performed by the same band at each festival’s main stage and then assessed the sound quality and acoustics of each venue.

The latter data set included computer simulations of each festival’s main venue. Each simulation evaluated several properties: clarity (the degree to which a listener can discern different sounds and details in the music); sound pressure level (the intensity of the music); loudness (the volume of the music); and reverberation (the persistence of a sound after the original sound has ended).

Each quantitative property has commonly accepted levels, all of which contribute to the best possible listening experience. Using these levels he found that the clarity in Halifax exceeded the acceptable range, and the reverberation in Toronto was excessive. In Montreal, meanwhile, the loudness was too low and the sound pressure level was uneven across the main venue.

Gaum determined that the overall acoustics of the Toronto and Halifax venues fall within an acceptable range. In Montreal, the open-air/closed-space design of the performance venue left some survey participants unsatisfied.

Using the simulation and survey data, Gaum was able to create an optimal concept for the Montreal jazz festival venue. The annual event, which features up to nine stages, faces a number of complicated challenges.

“It was difficult to ensure the stages didn’t interfere acoustically with each other,” Gaum says. “They also couldn’t interfere acoustically with other structures in the area, and the noise couldn’t disturb anyone in the vicinity.”

Today, Gaum is working as an architect and continuing to collaborate with Ramakrishnan. The pair has been asked to conduct an acoustical analysis of a local church, and there are plans to one day publish a manual of best practices for event organizers and acoustic engineers.

“Acoustical Evaluation of Temporary Performance Facilities,” a summary of Gaum’s thesis, was published in the September 2010 issue of the journal Canadian Acoustics. Additionally, Ramakrishnan and Gaum presented the research in October at the Canadian Acoustical Association conference in Victoria, B.C.

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