Soundscape design of an open-air concert venue using virtual reality technologies

Hong Kong has two mega-projects underway that include open-air concert venues. One of them is called the Kai Tak Sports Park and another is the West Kowloon Cultural District. As an open-air concert venue will produce amplified music and noise from audience, as well as vehicular traffic noise and crowd noise before and after the concerts, a priori analysis of soundscape and noisescape in the district due to musical events is highly desirable. This paper reviews some noise incidents due to concerts at the Hong Kong Stadium and Chinese operas at other public places. We suggest that virtual reality technologies shall be utilized so that stakeholders can hear the possible soundscape and noisescape at different periods of a musical event during the public engagement.