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The University of Southampton
Engineering

Culture and auditorium acoustic design: Societal influences on the acoustic design of recently-opened auditoria Seminar

Time:
16:00
Date:
14 February 2017
Venue:
University of Southampton, Highfield Campus, 13/3017

For more information regarding this seminar, please email Rameen Mustafa at R.Mustafa@soton.ac.uk .

Event details

EngEnv - ISVR Seminar Series

This lecture looks at non-scientific and non-engineering influences on recent auditorium acoustic design. Rob will show how major performance spaces which have opened over the past few years have been influenced by factors such as European democratic thinking, health, musician preference and fashion.

Speaker information

Rob Harris , Consultancy/University of Southampton. Rob Harris was born in London in 1954. After obtaining a BSc (Hons) in Physics from Warwick University in 1975, Rob was a stage lighting designer, a fringe theatre technical director and a sound engineer in the West End of London and Canada, mixing major musicals such as Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. He obtained a MSc at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at Southampton University in 1977. He then worked in acoustics, mainly in the onshore and offshore oil industries. Rob returned to design for the performing arts by joining Arup in 1982. He left Arup after 33 years as an Arup Fellow, a Director of Ove Arup & Partners and the leader of acoustics, theatre design and the Arts & Culture business in the UK, Middle East and Africa. In 2015 Rob formed Rob Harris Design Limited, providing his services as a leading international auditorium acoustic designer and theatre consultant. A major client of Rob Harris Design is Theatre Projects, with whom Rob collaborates on larger projects. Rob is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Acoustics (he was awarded the inaugural IOA Engineering Medal in 2004) and a Member of the Institute of Theatre Consultants. In 2009 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and in 2016 he was appointed as a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at the Institute of Sound & Vibration Research, University of Southampton.

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