Variable acoustics for Tbilisi Center for Music and Culture

The “Tbilisi Center for Music and Culture“ in Tiflis, Georgia, is presently undergoing costly modifications part of which is an important contribution by the Pfaff-silberblau factory for lifting technology in Kissing, Germany. By the end of September 2008, the specialists for stage machinery will deliver and install a completely new type of system that will give the concert hall extraordinarily variable acoustics. The planning stage for the modifications to the “Tbilisi Center for Music and Culture“ took about a year and a half and involved comprehensive acoustical measurements and modification studies. When the modifications are complete, the result will be spectacular. A highly integrated control system will make it possible to adjust the acoustic of the venue at the touch of a button to suit different orchestral situations; a sophisticated live orchestra performance, or a recording of a classical concert with genuine spatial sound quality, for instance. One of the ways to achieve the desired effects is to move a replica of the acoustically functional ceiling ornamentation. This “weighty” task is accomplished by two newly developed Pfaff-silberblau electrical rope winches. Suspended under the ceiling of the hall, they move the 30,000 kilogram ceiling element to the correct position and inclination, computer-controlled and fully automatically. Further electrical rope winches and chain hoists in the roof see to it that all the loudspeakers, microphones and spotlights are moved to pre-programmed positions. To anchor all the electrical rope winches and chain hoists securely, the Pfaff-silberblau engineers had to completely rework and reinforce the entire supporting steel structure in the roof. They not only had to meet the usual safety standards for stage machinery, but above all they had to take one local peculiarity into consideration: the Georgian capital city, Tiflis, lies on an active tectonic fault, so all structures have to be earthquake-proof by design. To achieve this, some 70,000 kilograms of steel were used in the supporting structure the roof of the “Tbilisi Center for Music and Culture“. The drives of the Pfaff-silberblau rope winches and chain hoists are controlled either from a central control panel in the control room, or directly from the stage. The control concept allows both the storing of complete sets of arrangements for orchestras, soloists and other types of performance, and the extension of the system to include the underfloor stage machinery. With these modifications, conductor and composer Vakhtang Kakhidze who is the director of the venue comes close to achieving his ambitious goal of making the “Tbilisi Center for Music and Culture” one of the ten best-sounding halls worldwide. The center was opened in 1989 under the guidance of his late father, the internationally known Georgian conductor Djansug Kakhidze. Twenty years on, the reopened “Tbilisi Center for Music and Culture” will not only rise in new glory, but will also impress with its versatile acoustics.