The influence of proscenium boxes on acoustic response in historical opera halls

In some historical opera halls there are boxes located around the proscenium, commonly called proscenium or "director" boxes. These boxes have a certain influence on the initial part of the impulse response of an opera hall on the singer-auditorium, singer-singer, and singer-orchestra pit paths. During the reconstruction of the Ljubljana opera hall, measurement of a scaled model was performed to quantify the influence of proscenium boxes on the hall's impulse response. Some variation in box configuration on the acoustic response was also tested. This paper describes the results of this research.