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Marshall Day Acoustics Pty Ltd was engaged by
Hassell Francis, a joint venture consortium between architect Kim
Francis and Hassell Pty Ltd, to provide acoustical consulting advice on
the proposed new $120M Central City Studios at Docklands, Victoria.
Central City Studios consists of five individual
world class sound stages with a total floor area of 6,400sq metres on a
6ha site. The largest studio, Studio 1 has a floor plan of 40m x 60m
with a floor to ceiling height of 20m at the highest point. Each studio
is designed for full feature film production and Studio 1 includes a
below ground pit for shooting of multi level scenes such as basements,
attics or water scenes. Studio 5 is designed for use as a TV studio for
live audience productions.
The studios are located very close to the
Melbourne City Link Freeway, adjacent to an elevated section of road
through the Melbourne Docklands district leading to the Bolte Bridge .
Traffic noise from the bridge had a significant influence on the design
given that the required traffic noise level within the building was
below NR22 (25dBA).
Of particular interest was the roof design which
consisted of a floated roof mounted above the rigidly constructed
ceiling. Special elastomeric mounts were selected to provide isolation
against external roof loads and wind loads in both directions. The
resulting system required every mount on the project to be inspected
and adjusted to comply with Marshall Day Acoustics' strict performance
requirements.
Marshall Day Acoustics provided advice on the
vibration isolation of the floated floor slabs. These floors were a
particularly critical issue given the unique vibration transmission
characteristics of the Coode Island silt upon which the studios are
floated.
The specification for the studios required that
the air supply and return systems achieved a noise level less than NR22
in film mode which is at 50% volume flow. A unique feature of the
studio design was the need to minimise the adverse visual impact of
roof mounted plant. Consequently the exhaust fan chambers for each
studio were internally mounted within the studio itself, achieving NR20
or less from fans exhausting directly out of the space, proved to be a
significant challenge overcome by Marshall Day Acoustics using the
separately mounted and isolated fan chambers.
Commissioning tests on the studios at 100% flow,
50% flow and no flow conditions, indicated that the level of traffic
noise in most studios was below NR15 and for most studios at the design
condition noise levels were NR20 and below in film mode.
With a superb new film production facility in the
heart of Melbourne , the new Central City Studios are assured of
success, particularly with their superb acoustics and quiet environment
ideal for today's high-tech quality film production.
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