Here Emad discusses acoustical simulation, and the profound impact that acoustics design has on tourism or entertainment projects.
Emad El-Saghir is the Senior Acoustical Consultant for ADA Acoustics & Media Consultants in Germany, and one of more than 25 speakers at Prolight + Sound’s Events Technology and Entertainment Development Forum.
1. What is the importance of acoustics from a design aspect in tourism or entertainment projects?
Acoustics in its broader definition is the science dealing with mechanical waves in solid, liquid and gaseous media, and is, therefore, profoundly present in almost all aspects of our life. Under the title “acoustics” we can list several sub-disciplines such as ultrasonics, under-water acoustics, bioacoustics, aeroacoustics, and many more, whose definitions and scopes might not be well understood by a layperson, although he or she comes in touch with the developments of these sub-disciplines all the time.
However, topics like architectural acoustics, electro-acoustics and building acoustics are disciplines that are closer to the average person’s experience, since they deal with sound, noise and vibration, and as such they touch very important facets of his or her daily life including efficiently communicating with others, securing quiet and pleasant environment and enjoying entertainment.
A tourist or a visitor of an entertainment venue is a person who is interested in extending his or her cultural boundaries and seeks pleasant and safe leisure time that can be spent in so many different ways.
They might be visiting a museum, attending a piece of drama or a musical performance, enjoying an open-air concert or a theme park attraction, visiting worship houses for religious purposes or supporting national teams in stadiums. These are just examples, where the tourist or the entertainment seeker communicates or being communicated with through sound.
It is also important to remember that the experience of tourists starts at the moment they step in the airport, where they need to be efficiently informed through clear and intelligible voice messages about their flights and, in case of emergency, how to evacuate the building. Here play architectural and electro-acoustics the major role.
The time the tourists spend in their hotels is an important part of their experience as well. There, they need to enjoy a quiet room and amusing entertainment amenities, where acoustics, specially building acoustics comes strongly into the picture.
Looking at the bigger picture, the experience of individual tourists is what mainly creates the image of a venue or even an entire country, as far as tourism and entertainment is concerned, and this is what motivates, or demotivates, tourists and visitors to spend their money there.
2. What are some of the key projects in the Middle East that you’ve been involved in from an acoustics aspect?
In the Middle East, I have been involved in many projects of different sizes in different countries. Of these, I can mention H. H. Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, the campuses of King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in Saudi Arabia, American University in Cairo, Dubai International Airport, Hamad International Airport and others. Since several years now, I am involved in the Third Expansion of the Holy Haram and the renovation of the Mataf in Makkah.
3. What are your proudest projects you’ve involved in and why?
I am working since many years with Dr. Wolfgang Ahnert, and I am delighted to participate / have participated with ADA team in many successful projects.
Recently, we were involved in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, which is a fantastic landmark, and also a perfect example of entertainment and tourism projects, where acoustics plays the main role.
However, if I would choose one project when it comes to pride, I would choose the Third Expansion in Makkah, which is a life-time project in terms of its size, prestige, challenges and the experience I have gained and still gain therefrom.
4. What is acoustical simulation, and where is it today?
The propagation of sound waves in rooms and the perception of human ears of the room response to such waves are all quite complicated processes, and each room is actually unique.
When dealing with acoustic design in rooms, knowledge and experience are indispensable in any case, and working with classical tools can still be adequate in moderately sized projects, but when there is an abundance of space and when architects’ imagination is rocketing (as usual), your project can go beyond certain limits, where experience and classical tools might not help.
Simulation, in such cases, is like a torchlight in your hand, while you are stepping in a dark room. Acoustical simulation in its typical form today is thee-dimensionally and digitally modelling the venue with all relevant acoustical details, so that the designer can virtually investigate the venue acoustical properties, the sound sources, the resulting sound field in the venue, and optimize all these parameters, while the venue is still on the drawing board and before any investment is made.
The designer can go further and create a complete virtual reality environment, where he or she can listen with own ears, how the yet-to-be-built room will sound. Twenty years ago, computers were toys, if compared to today’s hardware capabilities. This has hampered the ability of designers to build correct models, particularly for large venues, and to get meaningful output of the simulation process in a reasonable time.
Today, this is no longer an issue, computers are faster everyday, multithreading is very common, and memory is cheap. Designers can build quite large and complicated models and get simulation results in one hour for rooms, which, ten years ago, would have taken two weeks by a workstation to be simulated, if at all. In the meantime, software tools have made an impressive progress as well in terms of simulation accuracy, graphical capabilities and exchange of models among modelling platforms.
The capabilities of the acoustical simulators today turn the torchlight in your hand, while you are stepping in a dark room, to a powerful but handy spotlight that lights up that dark room, if properly used.
5. What can acoustical simulation offer to tourism and entertainment industries?
As I mentioned, acoustical simulation is a fundamental design tool that can be used to investigate, in the design stage and before irreversible decisions are implemented, as many design alternatives as the designer and the project owner would like.
This means optimizing the solutions from a technical and financial perspectives, expecting problems and difficulties timely and seeking the right solutions to avoid surprises and setting a preset level of performance that all project stakeholders can agree on, and be committed to, before execution starts. In my opinion, proper, reliable and comprehensive acoustical simulation can make a difference between success and failure for tourism and entertainment industries.
For a new theme park project for example, the landscape and architecture can be quite extensive, far from typical and very challenging. Here, the acousticians and system designers can work closely from day one with the architects and other designers to offer solutions that integrate well in this distinctive architecture and meet in the meantime the demanding requirements of a balanced, far-reaching and controlled sound system that is an essential element in theme parks and that works in harmony with the park activities while keeping noise control in mind.
6. How can the implementation of the simulation tools be boosted and advanced in the Middle East?
I have to say that I have noticed in the recent years some good steps in the region towards this goal, particularly for large and important projects. I believe, however, that there is still a lot to do, and that this can be the responsibility of different parties.
Projects owners, especially the projects owned and financed by the governments in the region, can require that acoustic simulation is considered from the early design stages and over the entire course of the project.
They need to understand that this is of a great value for them and their project in the first place, and that the costs of employing acoustic designers and simulation tools are just a small fraction of what might cost later to rectify any problems after project opening, if this is then possible at all.
But project owners rely on their consultants, and here comes the responsibility of the engineering and consulting offices in the region, to provide the owners with the right advice in this case, and to appoint acoustical consultants in their projects, if they do not have in-house acoustics and system designers.
On the other hand, I think the society needs to be more educated about acoustics and the importance of acoustic design in general. This can be the responsibility of events such as Prolight and Sound in Dubai, which can be a good opportunity in the next years to arrange one- or two-day seminars about the topic.
Universities can be also a major player in educating the society and offering their students long or short programs about acoustics and acoustic design. Universities can host seminars as well that can be attended by the public, which can be very useful for project owners and consulting and engineering offices. In general, I am optimistic that the curve will continue to rise. It is all about the speed of rising.
7. Finally, how important is it for you to speak at the The Events Technology and Entertainment Development Forum?
Although the time slot is very tight, it is still a good opportunity to meet people face-to-face, address the important points of the matter, answer questions and provide clarifications. This can certainly draw the attention of many and motivate the visitors to seek more information about the topic.