WXPN / World Cafe Radio Studio
Philadelphia, PA
Project Type: New Construction
AD Scope: Room Acoustics, Sound Isolation,
Noise Control
WXPN is a member-supported radio station from the University of Pennsylvania and a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate. The station, which produces the daily, nationally aired show World Café, had found its existing facility to be inadequate to support its substantial and variable state-of-the-art production needs.
Acoustic Dimensions (AD) was retained by WXPN to design the new broadcast facility, and by Real Entertainment, Inc., as part of the design team for the World Café Live (WCL) performance venue, which is being developed in partnership with WXPN.
The project, an adaptive reuse of a historic building, will include a 1,000 square-foot, double-height performance studio with custom acoustic treatments, from which the World Café radio program will originate. This studio will also have the capability of broadcasting live or recorded performances from WCL.
The new broadcast studios will also be comprised of three control rooms, an on-air studio, a production control room, and two smaller live rooms. AD specified and detailed isolated room-in-room construction for all of these spaces, which will limit sound transfer between rooms.
Significant acoustic challenges emerged throughout the design. For instance, as the public enters the building to go to World Café Live, they’ll have an opportunity to see into the performance studio
through large windows.
These large windows had to be carefully detailed to maintain adequate sound isolation and angled to prevent undesirable acoustic reflections.
Exterior noise sources, such as nearby trains and traffic, created additional sound isolation challenges.
