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A full hall standing up at the end of a convocation makes one sound, and in most auditoriums it is the sound of seats slamming shut. Chrono carries a damper in the seat: the tip-up is silent and the rebound is cushioned, so the seat returns without the slap that usually follows the vote of thanks. BaccoliniDesign built that mechanism into a chair of generous padding and clean lines, with the backrest pitched outward from the body, and it is why these theatre seating rows sound the same on their first evening and years later.
The figures are compact. Closed, a Master side is 44 cm deep; with the seat down, 70 cm; the seat sits 45 cm from the floor and the chair stands 90 cm high. Seats are set at a pitch of 54 or 56 cm, which gives a seat 47 or 49 cm wide, and the side between two neighbours is 7 cm in front view. A seat on micro-springs is the one option that touches the cushion.
Conference halls and congress centres take the same rows. For lecture theatres the side houses a 761 cm² anti-panic writing pad; where the rake is steep the Plus with headrest backrest rises to 108 cm; and in a multipurpose hall the Wheels and Back System lets a row be moved aside on retractable wheels. La Mercanti checks the tip-up on a sample chair with the hall's own sound system switched off, so that the rebound is judged in silence and not under a microphone.
Collection: Chrono
Manufacturer: Ares Line S.p.A., Thiene (Vicenza), Italy
Design: BaccoliniDesign
What it is: chair for auditoriums, theatres, convention centres and conference halls, with generous padding, clean lines and a backrest leaning out of the body of the chair at an angle
Sides: Master, monolithic and upholstered · Wood, with wooden facing and removable upholstered armrest · Long (Master or Wood), 6 cm deeper
Seat: Master, upholstered · Wood, upholstered with exposed wooden panel · Acoustic, upholstered with exposed acoustic wooden panel
Backrest: Master, upholstered · Wood, with the same exposed wooden panel at the rear · Plus, upholstered and enlarged · Plus with headrest, enlarged with headrest
Mechanism: seat with damper for a silent tip-up and a cushioned rebound; seat with micro-springs on request
Maintenance: backrest and seat tamper-proof and removable without tools by maintenance staff; components easily separable and fully recyclable
Accessories: Top (removable upholstered armrest) · Wooden Top (removable wooden armrest) · Media Top (armrest prepared for multimedia) · Steel Back (painted sheet-steel rear of the backrest) · Wooden Back (wooden rear of the backrest) · Logos (custom embroidery) · Numbering (embroidered seat and row numbers) · Microsprings · Back Stitching (stitching on the backrest) · End-Row Light · In-Seat Power · Tablet · Back Table
Writing pad in the side: anti-panic, folding into the side; surface 761 cm², black HPL 8 mm thick; also available for left-handers
Back table: type 1, laminate top 20 or 30 mm thick, anti-panic mechanism with a cover over the rods, quick automatic closing to the vertical position; supports for flat floors or tiers
Wheels and Back System: retractable wheels that come out of the side for sideways movement; backrest that rotates and lowers to the compact position; requires a Master or Wood side without writing pad
Provisions on project: In-Seat Power (side prepared for a power socket) and Multimedia, with cabling integrated in the structure
Acoustics: configurable acoustic performance, certified to ISO 354
Materials: FSC®-certified wood
Product standards: EN 12727 level 4 · EN 15372 level 3
Reaction to fire: compliant with many national standards; for Italy, Classe 1IM
Minimum Environmental Criteria: compliant with the Italian CAM for furniture
Installation: recommended maximum tier height 40 cm with the Master backrest and 60 cm with Plus with headrest; maximum rake 5°; curved rows with a radius over 20 m for the 54/56 pitch (minimum 100 seats), from 5 to 20 m for the 56 pitch (minimum 100 seats), under 5 m for the 54/56 pitch with double side
Seat pitch: 54 or 56 cm; seat width 47 or 49 cm; side thickness 7 cm
Heights: 90 cm overall, 108 cm with Plus with headrest · side 65 cm · seat 45 cm
Depths: 44 cm closed · 70 cm with the seat open · 74 cm with the writing pad in use · Long side: 50 cm closed, 80 cm once the pad is open
Projects cited by Ares Line: IMA Auditorium, Ozzano dell'Emilia (2022, 260 seats) · Confcommercio Campania conference hall, Naples (2026, 35 seats, 72 m²) · Expo Center Ekaterinburg (5,300 seats with Zero9 and Zero7; seven seat pitches from 52 to 62 cm, on project)
Warranty: 7 years, declared by Ares Line
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The surface and the armrest. The Master side is a single upholstered block with no visible wood; the Wood side has a wooden facing and carries a removable upholstered armrest on top. Both take the same seats and backrests, so a hall can specify Wood on the aisle ends, where the side is on show, and Master inside the row. The choice is made per row and written into the order, because the side is built, not dressed on site.
Yes, as an accessory called End-Row Light: a light fitted at the end of the row. It is specified per row, so a hall can light the rows that face the main entrances and leave the others dark. For the usher it means a row can be found with the house lights down; for the designer it means the row ends are decided on the plan together with the exits, not after the chairs are in.
It does. At a pitch of 54 cm from centre to centre the seat is 47 cm wide; at 56 cm it is 49 cm. The side between two seats does not change. On a long row the two pitches give two different seat counts for the same wall, so the width is a decision about the room before it is a decision about comfort.
In three steps, as the manufacturer numbers them for its Wheels system: the chair sits in its working position; the mechanism that lets the retractable wheels out is operated; the chair is moved sideways. The requirement for Chrono is a Master or Wood side without the writing pad. For a multipurpose hall this is what turns a fixed row into something the staff can shift between a seminar and a dinner.
A velvet in a colour of its own. At Ozzano dell'Emilia, in 2022, the 260 Chrono seats were upholstered in high-quality velvet dyed to a special shade taken from the client's sample; the same hall paired it with the backrest rear in exposed wood and with seat numbers embroidered tone on tone. For an institution that owns a house colour, the lesson is practical: the sample leaves for the factory before the swatch card is even opened.
The sequence for setting the acoustic performance of a hall of Chrono chairs: the Acoustic seat, the Wood and Master surfaces, the row-by-row configuration, the certified result and the manufacturer's acoustics division.
The Acoustic version of the Chrono seat is upholstered on top and carries an exposed acoustic wooden panel underneath. It is the element that changes how the chair behaves when the seat is raised, because the surface the hall sees from its rear rows is the panel, not the padding.
The Wood seat and the Wood backrest show an exposed wooden panel; the Master versions are fully upholstered. Mixing them changes how much fabric and how much wood a closed row presents to the room, which is the surface that counts when the hall is half empty.
Ares Line describes the acoustic performance of Chrono as configurable: the seat and backrest versions are chosen per row, so a hall can carry Acoustic seats in one block and Master in another. Write the configuration row by row on the layout, because that is the form in which it reaches the factory.
The acoustic performance of Chrono is certified according to the ISO standard quoted in the product passport. Request the certificate for the configuration actually ordered, since the result belongs to a specific combination of seat and backrest and not to the chair in general.
Fonology is the division Ares Line created in 2013 for architectural acoustics: it offers global consultancy and certification of the final result. For a hall where speech intelligibility is part of the brief, the division is brought in alongside the hall's own acoustician before the rows are confirmed.
