Studio design and acoustic consultants, Mtshali Moss Projects Africa (MMPA), were consulted by SkyRink Studios in the acoustic design and configuration of the new facility’s six television studios.
Although the general outline of the studios was decided upon by the SkyRink management, MMPA made significant design contributions, particularly as they pertained to the acoustic requirements of the production spaces.
From an acoustic perspective, SkyRink came with a unique set of challenges, as MMPA managing director Steve Moss explains: “Being on the top floor of a parkade, the space in which the studios were to be built is subject to a high degree of structural vibration. There is also a lightweight roof structure, which was put in place when the ice rink was built to obviate the need for support columns. While it’s impractical to have columns in studio spaces, we had to develop a strategy to deal with acoustic isolation through the lightweight roof structure and still allow sufficient weight loading to support typical television studio equipment hanging off the roof support systems – including air-conditioning systems and lighting etc. This made it a challenge to isolate the space from outside noise.”
Barry Geldenhuis, MMPA’s senior engineer on the SkyRink site, explains how they approached the vibration challenge: “In our initial investigations we could hear and feel cars moving on the floors below which would create a serious problem for microphone recordings. When you create a space that is considerably quieter than those ambient levels, these noises become even more apparent. Being a television studio with a noise rating below NC25, we planned for a ‘box-in-box’ design, which is to say the studios would be de-coupled from the building structure, isolating it from both air-borne and structural noise. The existing floor slab provided sufficient weight loading to support a second slab separated by a 20mm air gap, using imbedded isolation jacks. These floating slabs would form the floor of each of the six studios. Vibration expert Trevor Davies provided invaluable assistance with these floor slabs. Thereafter all support structures, walls and acoustics for each studio were constructed on these slabs – separated from the building.”
To tackle the roofing challenge, a ceiling was designed, made from a combination of Gypsum boards, acoustic fillers and de-coupling support devices, which was suspended off the existing building roof grid that held the light weight slab above. This strategy maintained the “box-in-box” design and provided appropriate isolation of structural and air-borne noise into the studio. Sufficient weight loading in the roof support structure was still available to support services and equipment in each studio.
The studio walls consisted of two independent structures separated by an air gap – a structural wall supported on the building slab and an inner wall on the floating studio slab to ensure the “box-in-box” strategy. Both walls were constructed from lightweight multi-layer boards and acoustic filler as the floor slab could not carry the additional weight of brick and cement.
MMPA were also involved in designing the movable partition separating studios 5 and 6, which, when removed, allow for the two spaces to be joined into a single larger one. When engaged, this partition provides the same isolation as the multi-layer studio walls. They also played a role in the air conditioning design, providing considerable design input into mechanical and electrical services, including the set-up of separate individual mechanical plants for each studio. MMPA specified noise level requirements for the studios and offered input throughout the process to ensure the acoustic integrity of the studios and that the correct noise requirements were met.
