On April 21, 2007, the new Mercatorhalle in the CityPalais of Duisburg was opened with a ceremonial act and four days later, the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra took possession of their new concert hall with an inaugural concert. With the new Mercatorhalle, Duisburg receives an event centre housing a great hall for concerts, conferences and show events that seats 1750 spectators, a smaller hall with 600 seats and several conference rooms.

Müller-BBM has contributed in many ways to the acoustic success of this complex project. The most challenging task was to plan the room acoustics of the great hall, which on the one hand was to offer impeccable conditions for conferences and shows and on the other hand was expected to even surpass the vaunted acoustics of the old Mercatorhalle. By means of state-of-the-art planning tools, decades of experience available at Müller-BBM in this field and a close supervision of the work in progress, this objective was attained from the very beginning – according to enthusiastic praise by spectators and press reviews alike. Due to the numerous variable acoustic possibilities - some visible, some hidden - inside the hall, the new Mercatorhalle has great acoustic potential which will still be developed within the months to come.

An additional core topic was building acoustics inside the complex of buildings. Here, the task was to keep disturbing noise coming from other utilisations of the building such as a casino, a mall and offices from penetrating into the event halls. Furthermore, control of the low frequency noise generated by the underground line in the proximity of the concert hall was called for, a task which was also completed with great success.

Also immediately involved in the project were the acoustic test stands of Müller-BBM, where the leather seats as specified by the designer were modified in a way that they now meet the exacting requirements for concert hall seating.

Apart from acoustic consultancy, Müller-BBM was also responsible for the complete planning and construction supervision for technical equipment such as sound reinforcement and conference and video systems for the new Mercatorhalle. By means of meticulous and application oriented planning, comprehensive, state-of-the-art equipment of the highest quality level could be realised on the given budget.