PALOMAR, JEWEL VINCENT A.
DECEMBER 14, 2016
ARUT3 4929 3:30-4:30
REVERBERATION TIME - The reverberation time of a room characterizes how long acoustic
energy remains in a room. It is usually defined as the time for the acoustic intensity (or
energy density) to decrease by a factor of one million (60 dB). Since a reasonably loud clap is
about 100 dB (SPL) and a whisper is about 40 dB, you can easily estimate the reverberation
time for a room by clapping and listening to how long you can still hear some remaining
sound from the clap. This assumes that the room is not particularly unusual in its
dimensions and that it is reasonably quiet.
If the overall RT60 is short (say less than 0.3 seconds) the room acoustic will be "dead"; for
example a heavily furnished room with thick carpets, curtains and upholstered furniture
may have such an acoustic.
If the overall RT60 is long (say more than 1.5 seconds) the room acoustic will be "live" and
echo; for example a large empty room with painted plaster walls and a tiled floor may have
such an acoustic.
n a given room, the reverberation time can be altered by adding (or removing) absorbent
materials; for example in a school hall, a long RT60 can be reduced by the introduction of a
heavy carpet; however, heavy curtains may be preferred so that the RT60 can be altered.
ROOM ACOUSTICS - describes how sound behaves in an enclosed space. The way sound
behaves in a room can be broken up into roughly four different frequency zones:
The first zone is below the frequency that has a wavelength of twice the longest
length of the room. In this zone, sound behaves very much like changes in static air
pressure.
Above that zone, until the frequency is approximately 11,250(RT60/V)1/2 (when
Volume is measured in cubic feet and 2000(RT60/V)1/2 when Volume is measured in
cubic metres), wavelengths are comparable to the dimensions of the room, and so
room resonances dominate. This transition frequency is popularly known as the
Schroder frequency, or the cross-over frequency and it differentiates the low
frequencies which creates standing waves within small rooms from the mid and high
frequencies.
The third region which extends approximately 2 octaves is a transition to the fourth
zone.
In the fourth zone, sounds behave like rays of light bouncing around the room.
AUDITORIUM ACOUSTICS - Optimum reverberation time is a compromise between clarity
(requiring short reverberation time), sound intensity (requiring a high reverberant level),
and liveness (requiring a long reverberation time). The optimum reverberation time of an
auditorium is dependent on the use for which it is designed.
DIRECTIVITY CONTOUR FOR SPEECH - Speaker orientation can be an important factor in
classrooms and meeting rooms in particular. As indicated in the diagram, there is a
difference of about 10 decibels (dBA) in speech levels between the front and back of the
speaker. This amounts to about 1-1/2 decibels per 30 degrees of rotation from the head on
direction of the speech signal.
The average sound level of a male speaker is about 65-64 decibels at a distance of 3 feet
from the speaker. The average speech level of a female speaker is about 2-4 decibels lower
at a 3-foot distance from the speaker.
Orientation of the speaker to the listener is an important consideration. This is particularly
so when considered in context of the Inverse Square Law, which teaches us, that for every
doubling of the distance the signal will diminish in intensity by approximately 6 decibels.
The directivity patterns of human speech and voice have been measured for use in a variety
of applications. In addition to experimental verification of acoustical modeling techniques,
directivity measures are necessary to verify the accuracy of artificial human head and speech
simulators, which are in turn used experimentally for applications such as calculation of the
speech transmission index in architectural acoustical design.
