According to Paul Beard, vice president and chief operating officer of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, achieving acoustical perfection within the Center’s 2,050-seat Reynolds Hall is a primary goal of the project’s engineers, designers and acousticians.  “It will allow the Las Vegas Philharmonic to be heard like it never has been before,” Beard said.  “The quality of the Center’s acoustics will also significantly expand opportunities for our city to attract world-class orchestras that previously might not have come to Las Vegas.  Acoustics is one standard of measurement which separates mediocre performance halls from great ones, and for The Smith Center, we are striving to be one of the best.”

According to Beard, there are three precepts necessary for superior acoustics:  a quiet room that is the result of careful and thoughtful acoustical design; an abundance of hard surfaces to enhance reverberation, and a large volume of properly configured space.

To ensure acoustically superior design and construction, The Smith Center has retained noted acoustician Paul Scarbrough of Connecticut-based Akustiks, whose signature projects include the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

“The location of Symphony Park has presented some unique challenges,” said Beard of the site where an active rail line still operates.  “Acoustical excellence requires isolation from outside noise and preventing it from getting inside the audience chamber.  To stop the building from transmitting vibration, we’re built on a 36-inch slab.”

Reynolds Hall is also surrounded by a two-inch air gap that separates the Hall’s exterior walls from the interior of the building itself.  The gap keeps sound from penetrating the building, such as noise from airplanes flying overhead.  Additionally, extremely large ducts deliver a high volume of air at a low velocity creating an essentially silent ventilation system.   Multi-purpose performance venues such as Reynolds Hall require an orchestra shell that will surround the philharmonic during symphonic performances.  A ceiling totally divides the stagehouse horizontally with a hard surface isolating rigging, drapery and other sound absorbent materials high in the fly loft.   Productions such as ballets, operas, and Broadway musicals place the musicians in an acoustically designed orchestra pit also designed to enhance sound quality.

“Other than the music itself, the only sounds you’ll hear in a world-class performance hall are those made by the audience – the shuffling of feet, the occasional cough and applause,” states Beard.  “But it all starts with a very, very quiet room."

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts