With 8,100 sq. metres of flexible event space, Exhibition Centre Liverpool is designed to host national and international trade and consumer exhibitions and conferences. It can also be used as a concert venue and has a standing capacity of 10,000.
As part of Europe’s only purpose-built interconnected arena, convention and exhibition centre, the development is directly connected to the ACC Liverpool and has an integrated 216 bedroom hotel.

Sandy Brown was engaged early in the design to provide advice in relation to the proposed development, including:

• environmental noise ingress
• noise egress from activities associated with the development
• building services noise and vibration
• sound insulation between spaces within the development
• room acoustics and acoustic absorption within key spaces.

The exhibition centre is located close to residential and existing hotel accommodation. Development of the scheme also included the deisgn and construction of an integrated hotel. As such, noise egress from activities such as amplified music and loading and unloading activities had a significant impact on the design and management of the space.
Three separate and sub-divisible halls are covered by a lightweight roof. Detailed noise modelling allowed us to predict the level of noise egress from events, likely levels of sound transfer from the halls and level of noise transfer to the worst affected façade areas of the hotel overlooking the roof.
The objective for the exhibition halls was to provide suitable acoustics for exhibitions and amplified concerts. This led us to recommend a range of acoustic finishes such as sound absorbent foam and variable acoustic drapes to provide flexibility for different uses.