The Chinese city of Harbin is well known for its music, and the hosting of the Harbin Summer Music Festival (among other events), which is now 40 years old.
Now the new Harbin Music Hall has been developed in order to host this famous event. Conceived back in 2010 the spectacular new building has been designed by famous Japanese designer, Arata Isozaki. The shape of the design itself resembles floating ice crystals — demonstrating the art of ice engraving.
With a floor space of 20,000 square meters and surrounding areas occupying a further 13,000 square meters, the main hall contains 1,200 seats, while the smaller studio room has a capacity for around 400 seats. Peripheral areas also include changing rooms for artists, restaurants, coffee houses and rest rooms.
The technical infrastructure at the Harbin Music Hall is based on a high level concert specification and among the brands specified by installers Guangzhou Ruisheng Lighting & Audio Equipment Co. Ltd. are GLP’s Spot One, working under consultants Arata Isozaki & Associates of Shanghai. The fixtures were supplied by China-RS, GLP distributor for China and Macau, who were also responsible for the audio and lighting design.
The GLP impression Spot One caused a sensation when it was launched as the first LED spot fixture of its kind — harnessing the output of enough LED sources and being able to run it through the optical system of a spot fixture to create an even beam for RGB color mixing. The fixture features an RGB LED engine with 8 or 16 bit control over each color allowing for incredibly delicate color changes or instantaneous bumps, with a vast gamut spectrum ranging from soft pastels to deep saturated shades.
The grand hall uses no fewer than 42 impression Spot One fixtures — 24 on the overhead truss, six more as a floor package, while in the small hall, eight further impression Spot Ones have been deployed in the overhead truss and a further four as a floor package.
The construction of the music hall has been geared up to welcome the 2015 New Year’s Concert of Harbin, featuring Harbin Symphony Orchestra, China's oldest symphony orchestra.
Meanwhile, Harbin’s previous music hall, which was established in 1990, has now been transferred to private investors for commercial business development.