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SoundArt HOT — Berlin, est. 2014

The Commissioning Process.

A documented five‑phase methodology for the design, composition and permanent installation of bespoke sound environments — from first conversation to five‑year acoustic stewardship.

Chapter IIProcessReading time, approx. 6 min

§ Five Phases, Twelve to Twenty‑Four Months

A methodology, not a sales pitch. Each chapter is a working contract we have refined across 143 permanent installations.

I.

Concept

Listening to the architecture.

Every commission begins on site. Lena Marković and a senior composer spend two to five days in the space, recording its native acoustics, mapping circulation paths and interviewing the principal stakeholders — the hotelier, the curator, the architect of record. The output is a Concept Dossier: a 40‑to‑60 page document of narrative, mood references, source material and a written brief that the full studio signs against before composition begins.

Duration
4 – 8 weeks
Deliverables
Concept Dossier, narrative brief, sonic palette
Team
Lead composer, senior engineer, studio director
II.

Composition

Writing music for a room, not a recording.

Composition takes place inside our Berlin studio — an anechoic chamber, a 64‑channel Ambisonic rig and a custom 31‑driver reference array. Each piece is authored multichannel from the first session, never upmixed in post. The catalogue of 600+ original compositions is drawn upon only as raw source material; every commissioned work is written new, against the brief, and signed off in a private client review.

Duration
10 – 18 weeks
Deliverables
Original multichannel masters, stem package, client review sessions
Team
Two composers, one mastering engineer, project director
III.

Spatial Engineering

Specifying the room itself.

Hardware specification, driver placement and acoustic treatment are drafted in parallel with composition. Our patented SpatialHarmony™ calibration engine — used in 38 five‑star properties — produces a speaker layout, DSP topology and reverberation treatment plan that the installing contractor builds against. No product is generic: each driver, amplifier and DSP node is chosen for the room it will live in.

Duration
6 – 10 weeks, parallel to composition
Deliverables
Hardware BoM, DSP schematic, acoustic treatment drawing
Team
Systems engineer, acoustic consultant, hardware specialist
IV.

On‑Site Calibration

Tuning in the room, with the room occupied.

A two‑person calibration team spends between five and fourteen days on site, measuring, listening and re‑tuning until the work performs as authored. Our internal 2023 data shows an average 4.2 dB improvement in perceived ambience versus the architectural baseline. Commissioning is signed off only when the client and the studio director agree on the result in person.

Duration
5 – 14 days on site
Deliverables
Calibration report, signed commissioning certificate
Team
Calibration engineer, studio director
V.

Five‑Year Stewardship

A sound environment is a living work.

Every commission closes with a five‑year acoustic maintenance contract: an annual on‑site re‑tuning, remote monitoring of the SpatialHarmony™ nodes, library refreshes and a guaranteed 48‑hour response for any acoustic or hardware fault. The work does not stop at handover — it is sustained.

Duration
5 years, renewable
Deliverables
Annual re‑tuning, remote monitoring, library refreshes
Response
48‑hour fault response, worldwide
On-site calibration at a heritage hotel, engineers tuning in a vaulted corridor.
Fig. 04 — On‑site calibration, Hôtel des Bains, 2020

Phasing

A 12 to 24 month envelope, with a 5 year acoustic stewardship tail.

  1. I Concept M 1 – 2 4 – 8 wks
  2. II Composition M 3 – 7 10 – 18 wks
  3. III Spatial Eng. M 3 – 8 (parallel) 6 – 10 wks
  4. IV On‑Site Cal. M 9 – 11 5 – 14 days
  5. V Stewardship Y 1 – 5 Annual

Timelines compress for renovations, extend for newbuild handover dependencies. Every estimate above is provisional and refined in Phase I.

By the numbers, since 2014.

A studio that delivers — quietly, on time, certified.

  • 96% On‑time commissioning rate across the last five years.
  • 24 Full‑time sound artists, engineers and installers in Berlin.
  • 143 Permanent installations live across 27 countries, as of 2024.
  • ISO 9001 Certified for sonic environment design and installation.

Selected partners: Aman Resorts, Rosewood, Louvre Abu Dhabi. Awarded Prix Ars Electronica — Award of Distinction, 2021. Wallpaper* Top 50 Design Innovators, 2022.

Chapter close

Begin a commission.

Write to the studio with a short description of the property or institution, its location and a sense of when the work would need to be on site. We respond within five working days.

Commission a Sound Environment

Or write directly — [email protected]  ·  +49 30 4477 1820