Client
Hassell Studio
Location
Sydney
Completion date
2019
The University of Wollongong Western Building is a new 4 floor building that includes facilities for teaching and performances within both the Music and Drama departments.
Marshall Day’s scope included Theatre and Audio-Visual systems design for three performance spaces, two sound production studios, a 3-D audio studio, two radio studios and two video production studios.
The Design Process
The spaces are all technically complex and need to be able to operate as effective teaching venues, whilst also being able to accommodate performance and show delivery. In order to clarify priorities and operational modes, including pedagogical requirements, designs were developed through a series of workshops and consultation with members of the teaching departments. In addition, a series of iterative workshops were undertaken with the extended design team.
The following goals formed the design basis:
- Industry Standard. Equipment and systems are selected to ensure compatibility with industry standard or best-practice equipment
- Interconnectivity. Coordinate and optimise the relationships between spaces and also with the wider campus and beyond; with audio (analogue and digital), video, CAT6 and Optical Fibre
- Ergonomic & Ux Design. Ensure the relationship between users and equipment are optimised
- Presentation Capability. Multiple input display screens to encourage collaborative learning
Outcomes
The performance spaces are primarily designed for teaching of dramatic arts; however, they can also serve as performance spaces for the university and wider community.
Each of the audio studios functions as a recording / production and teaching space. The studios are interconnected, with the ability to receive and transmit signals to wider areas. Extensive use of optical fibre supports multi-channel wide bandwidth requirements.
Each of the video spaces functions as a recording / production and teaching spaces with the goal of content creation for news, documentary and other types of productions. Each studio is designed to accommodate practical workflow processes for the broadcast video type productions including set preparation, multiple camera use and green screen production.
Radio production studios will be used for training students in the production of news and entertainment content for broadcast. The systems support simulated radio broadcast for evaluation and test purposes, as well as live broadcast via internet streaming and on-air transmission.