Rising to Melbourne noise restrictions
Elevating RISING Melbourne festival with acoustic skill
As a specialist acoustic engineering and vibration consulting business, Resonate Consultants prides itself on its ability to service a broad and unique variety of industries, from infrastructure projects to arts and music festivals.
Photo credit: RISING Festival
Working together with RISING, one of Melbourne’s premier winter arts festivals, the team recently provided acoustic assessment works around two of the festival’s key features: Wu Tsang’s Anthem and Night Trade.
‘The project initially centred around the Anthem art installation,’ Peter Harris, Senior Acoustic Consultant, explained. ‘We were then engaged to provide assessment in line with noise restrictions surrounding the biggest part of the Melbourne festival, Night Trade,’ he said.
With a background in audio engineering, Peter was able to engage with and understand the inherent and, at times, contrasting needs of the parties involved with these two key festival features.
Originally commissioned by New York City’s Guggenheim Museum in 2021, Anthem is an AV art installation that utilises large-scale sound and video collaboration. Adapted for Melbourne, Anthem took up residence in St Paul’s Cathedral.
The Cathedral provided the perfect backdrop for this installation, designed to ignite both immersive and contemplative feelings in audiences. However, in order to ensure that the ambient city sound and St Pauls’ Cathedral reverberant environment didn’t compromise on the desired atmosphere, the team undertook initial testing.
Image credit: RISING Festival
‘We started by taking measurements inside to see what St Paul’s provided regarding the existing reverberant conditions and sound insulation from external noise sources. From there, we had to recommend practical noise attenuation measures for acoustic separation, which was challenging considering that physical barriers were not an option,’ Peter explained.
Given that the Cathedral remained in daily operation, any noise attenuation methods needed to be installed after 6 pm. Then, they would need to be taken down in the morning to accommodate the day’s scheduled services, which wasn’t practical for all parties involved.
Further, affixing mitigation solutions to the Cathedral’s façade would compromise heritage elements. ‘The project became less about what we would normally advise and more about management of how sound was operating and keeping communication constant to ensure expectations were managed,’ Peter said.
In addition to ambient internal and external sound, the team also had to consider the Cathedral’s noise restrictions and immediate surroundings. Namely, the fact that RISING’s centre point of the festival, Night Trade, would be located right next door.
An outdoor stage in the St Paul’s Cathedral car park, Night Trade was designed to be the festival’s unofficial meeting place where the atmosphere needed to be energetic and vibrant. Two states of being that were in direct contrast to the intended environment for Anthem.
‘There was concern from the project team about the classifications of the two installations. One needed to be quiet, while the other needed to excite people. After working on Anthem, we were then engaged to assess noise emissions and the loudspeaker placements associated with Night Trade,’ Peter explained.
Image credit: RISING Festival
Collaborating closely with the loudspeaker hire company, Peter and the Melbourne team were able to carefully consider the number, type, placement and orientation of the speakers. Resonate Consultants’ proprietary noise modelling software, SoundSurfer, was also used to predict music noise emissions into the Cathedral. This way, energy levels for Night Trade could be maximised while the environment envisioned for Anthem was not compromised.
Another facet of working on Night Trade centred around adhering to Environmental Protection Regulations and General Environmental Duty (under the Environmental Protection Act). With a nearby dwelling, the team logged background noise measurements and conducted a noise impact assessment so that Night Trade could receive an EPA L05 and L06 permit and adhere to the appropriate noise restrictions.
‘Exploring new territory was necessary in this case. Various EPA permits are associated with outdoor venues and stages; the standard curfew is at 11 pm. Yet, Night Trade wished to extend operations until midnight or 1 am. Therefore, we needed to substantiate their eligibility to obtain the permit.’
After producing a report that detailed the defined noise limits, demonstrated 3D sound planning, and the general noise management protocols to be adopted, the permits were approved, with conditions. ‘One of the conditions stipulated that management needed to be contactable by people looking to complain about noise,’ Peter said.
To ensure that both Resonate Consultants and the client could be confident that operations were within the noise restrictions, the team undertook a sound check the night before the festival started. Having gained access to the nearest dwelling, Peter stood on the hotel’s balcony while the sound system operated to confirm the validity of the numbers and the modelling.
A further condition attached to the permit revolved around giving festival staff access to a monitor that clearly outlined the current sound levels while also setting up two additional noise monitors in surrounding rooftop locations. ‘The data gathered could support a permit application next year if they decide to do something similar because continuous noise monitoring data within the area showed compliant levels during the festival, and as I understand it, there were zero complaints,’ Peter noted.
With the project scope encompassing everything from EPA regulations and noise limits to artistic expression, work wasn’t as simple as solely quantifying data. ‘We had to use our expertise to understand what the client wanted and how their art needed to be perceived and balance that with regulations and noise restrictions,’ Peter explained.
Image credit: RISING Festival
‘Resonate Consultants were both a pleasure and an asset to work with. Their support through the acoustic development of our central CBD outdoor hub location allowed us to effectively deliver a noise management plan that instilled confidence in regulators and local stakeholders as well as allow for an on-ground experience that met all of our objectives. Highly recommend,’ Toby Feldman. RISING Festival.
With Resonate Consultants’ core values encompassing being client-centric and distinctive, ‘we were able to truly understand the inherent needs of the project and adapt to perceived limitations, all of which resulted in better acoustic outcomes,’ Peter said.
