On this page the conclusions of the Palafenice Theatre acoustic qualification measurements performed on 6 October 1998 with the Acoustic Shell are shown, compared with other measurements of 24 November 1996 without the Acoustic Shell installed.
The author of the measurements and the report which follows is Dr. Eng. Lamberto Tronchin.

CONCLUSIONS
At the end of the preparation of the "PalaFenice" Theatre of Venice acoustic qualification measurements, following the comparison between the measurements performed in 1996 (without Acoustic Orchestra Shell) and in 1998 (with Acoustic Orchestra Shell), the following considerations can be drawn.

• The hall roof takes on considerable importance. The use of a tensostructure as a roof, for a hall destined for listening to music, does not represent the ideal solution. This causes almost corresponding reflections on a wise area of the floor with consequent trigger of flutter-echo, and extremely strong and delayed reflections, perceivable clearly even by fairly untrained listeners.
• The use of extremely sound absorbent flooring and seats emphasizes the acoustic "dichotomy" with the presence of two architectural areas with just about opposite acoustic functions. If on one side reflections which are too strong, delayed and marked arrive, from the other there is a sensation of "empty sound" which produces an inconvenience for listening to the music correctly.
• The Orchestra Acoustic Shell produces a certain acoustical benefit in many areas of the hall, while, where the address of the sound field on the ceiling is not avoided, this improvement appears limited on the whole. The Orchestra Acoustic Shell, in any case, produces an average increase in reverberation time, above all in mid-high frequencies, with great benefit for listening to the music, especially in the "cantabile" and in typically romantic music.
• The intelligibility of the words is increased in the rear seats due to the introduction of the Acoustic Shell, while it decreases in the central areas of the hall. Since use of the Orchestra Acoustic Shell is anticipated in conditions of orchestral music performance, this certainly translates into a benefit for the quality of music listening.