CONCERT-goers visiting the region's most spectacular auditorium will be treated to the purest of musical sound thanks to an intricate panelling system installed by a County Durham construction company.

M and M Plasline (MMP), from Bishop Auckland, has used innovative techniques on the acoustic system in Hall One at the £70m Sage Music Centre in Gateshead built by Laing O'Rourke.

A series of six mobile ceiling panels, each 16m x 6m, have been specially designed by Foster and Partners in conjunction with Arup Acoustics and MMP.

The curved panels have been designed to be raised or lowered to suit all styles of music. The panels are constructed from Finnish birch plywood and incorporate a continuous lighting strip to illuminate the facing of the panels, which have recessed sections and a felt lining to further enhance the acoustic performance of the system.

The panels will be suspended in the ceiling space of the auditorium by steel ropes on a counter-weighted system installed by Street Crane Express.

MMP also rendered the high level acoustic blockwork which forms part of the auditorium enclosure.

Steven Hodges, shopfitting manager at MMP, said: "The bespoke design of the acoustic mobile ceiling panels was calculated to include structural and sound specifications to ensure that the quality of sound in the hall was achieved.

"This was an extremely complex and challenging project for us as we had never been involved in such a large scale technically demanding design and build project of this type before."