Booth Acoustics and Windows

[sccrthlt]

I am the sound tech for the high school and last year we had our annual play and our booth wasn't very similar sounding in comparison to the actual auditorium. We have a booth that is roughly 8 ft. x 10 ft. It is made out of cinder blocks with nothing covering the walls except for the paint over the cinder blocks. The section we look out onto the stage is split into 3 window frames each the same dimensions. About 3ft. by 4ft. The middle window is open and the other two have glass in them. We want to take out the two glass panes so we can hear better in the booth. But we don't want people breaking in for obvious reasons. So what type of windows and where can we get them to fit into those frames?

Also what is the best way to get the booth sounding like the actual auditorium? I was thinking about getting acoustical pads. Is there any other tricks that anyone does?

 

[NickJones]

Can you not just move the console into the auditorium for the show? Being in the auditorum iss the best way to hear whats happening in the auditorium. A venue I do shows at from time to time has a booth that's almost sound proof, a friend was mixing and he had to do the whole show with his head hanging out a window. Major design flaw....
NicK

 

[Clifford]

Hearing what the audience hears is the best way to hear what they hear. Being in the house itself really is the best position, acoustically, for mixing. Since this is a high school, this may not be feasible though (our mixer is carriage bolted to the counter in the booth, still don't know how they went about that). High school auditoriums aren't always built with versatility in mind. You may have to get a snake if you wish to extend your mixing position to somewhere in the house.

 

[sccrthlt]

Thanks all for the comments. I don't think we have the option of moving the console out though. Forgot to mention that in my original post. Sorry.

Do you all have any suggestions on the windows? Also what can we do with the walls in the space? Thanks!

 

[FMEng]

Listening through a small opening is always going to color the sound to a degree. The bigger the opening, the less effect it will have. Maybe you could take the glass out and replace with some strong but thin metal bars to prevent unauthorized entry. Or build some kind of plywood panels that can be mounted in place when the booth isn't used. You may need the school's maintenance staff to help you with this.

Adding some acoustic deadening material to the ceiling over the window and rear wall behind the mixer can help after you make the window opening bigger. Make sure that any foam or rigid fiberglass panels you install have proper fire retardant ratings for that kind of use. They will not be inexpensive. The wrong kind of foam will kill people in a fire, and will not pass fire inspections. Post the fire specifications of the material on the booth wall, in a permanent manner, to answer perennial questions by the inspector.

 

[gafftaper]

The high school I taught at had hinged 1/8" sheet metal doors instead of windows on the booth. Just unlock the padlock and swing it open. Still secure but much better than dealing with being behind glass.

 

[sccrthlt]

The high school I taught at had hinged 1/8" sheet metal doors instead of windows on the booth. Just unlock the padlock and swing it open. Still secure but much better than dealing with being behind glass.

That's a really good idea. Thanks!

 

[w3st0n21]

I like the idea of the sheet metal...seems perfect. We should try it out sccrhlt.

 

[rwhealey]

In my experience with mixing behind a sliding window, I almost did a worse job with the window open then with it closed, because when it was open, I thought I could hear what was going on when I actually had a different mix. Not too different, but enough to be noticeable.

The house is the best option. I think it's worth a couple of seats.

 

[museav]

Do you really want to take out all of the glass? I understand wanting to get the booth as open as possible for the person mixing audio but might having it all open also result in the audience hearing more of the booth activities? Some other threads here have made it clear that there is a wide range of how people operate booths and in at least some cases a more open booth might require significant changes in the booth use and operation.

Without knowing your venue there is also the chance that providing a larger opening will still not really allow someone in the booth the hear what the audience is hearing, they may hear more but what they hear may differ significantly from what most of the audience hears.

So opening up the booth may indeed be very beneficial, but there may also be other considerations and you might want to weigh all of them before deciding what to do.

 

[venuetech]

expanded metal doors could be used insted of sheet metal. That way you could easly operate with the doors closed or open.

the other thing to do is during rehersal put an experinced tech in the house who can give you acurate mix info. perhaps the two of you can tag team as board ops. do this often enuf and when you are in the booth you will be able to better judge what is happening in the house.

 

[museav]

Learning what the audience hears in various locations throughout the audience area and how that relates to what you hear at the mix position is a good practice in any situation.

 

[ruinexplorer]

I was TD for a theater where the mix position for one space was behind glass and it could not be removed (nor would it have helped since the position was above the balcony). For musicals, we would pull house seats and put the console in the balcony (helped but still not ideal). The rest of the time we relied on a monitor mix with dedicated microphones positioned in the house. This worked reasonably well for playback and spoken word reinforcement. The other theater (two main stages and a blackbox in this space) had a dedicated sound booth with removable windows. Problem was, the balcony has sound traps so you could never hear things correctly there either so we'd supplement with a dedicated monitor system as well (headphones to listen to mix). Again, for musicals we'd remove seats in the house and pull the console out of the booth.