Choral Risers & Shells - Proper Angles

[Volunteer]

When setting up a shell behind choral risers, does one set them up like a parabolic reflector in a beam projector, parallel sound rays out to the audience? Or a spherical reflector like a fresnel passing back through the conductors center? Or like an ellipsoidal, focussing to a spot mid house? Is it the house's opinion or is there a standard? The upper angled section, just angled to center of house? Any thoughts out there?

 

[Footer]

I'm no acoustics person.... but here are my 2 c's.

What kind of shell do you have? If you have the ones we used to call "star wars walkers" that look like this....

Then you will want to set them up right behind your risers and they should go along the same line as your risers. Risers are designed in such a way that most of the voices point towards the center of the space while still allowing the audience to see everyone.

Really though, a shell does help, but unless you have a shell and ceiling pieces that come in, you can do as much as you want but its not going to be perfect. A shells real job is to bounce sound back into the space any way possible. In order to do that, it needs to be rather close to the thing that is making the sound.

Acoustical consultants could design you a proper shell for your venue if you so desire. Wenger makes most of the shells that are out there that are built for venues.

 

[museav]

The other purpose of shells is to allow the performers to hear one another.

 

[Volunteer]

Yes, like that drawing.

>>most of the voices point towards the center of the space...

So your thought is the sound should be projected to the center of the auditorium.

I would assume most risers are mostly stock items and not custom angled to a specific venue.

 

[sobenson]

Yes most risers are stock items. I am sure there are specifics on how long or tall you want them. I am also sure you can purchase venue specific risers, but they would be very costly unless the space was only a choral auditorium.