Room and Building Acoustics

In a room, good acoustics require a design that is fit for purpose, such as easy communication and a high degree of intelligibility in office spaces or long reverberation times in concert halls. Issues with acoustics are normally caused by sound being reflected too much, too little or in the wrong direction. To assess this, you can analyze the room’s acoustic properties, such as reverberation time – the length of time that sound echoes for – or its impulse response, which enables the acoustic characteristics of a space to be captured. With a better picture of the sound’s behavior in the room, you can improve it with redesigns or absorptive materials.

The way sound is created, propagated, perceived, measured and modelled inside an enclosed space is called room acoustics. Enclosed spaces include dwellings, offices, workshops, factory halls, lecture rooms, auditoriums, concert halls and transportation terminals.

Acoustic measurements are used to validate new constructions and troubleshoot existing ones. Reverberation time is the single most important parameter used to describe room acoustics, but parameters describing music quality and speech intelligibility are also important.

Building Acoustics Partner solution for Type 2255 sound level meter supports both impulsive excitation (Schroeder’s method), with pistol shots or balloon bursts, and the interrupted noise method, using a loudspeaker. Measurements comply with the relevant parts of ISO standards including ISO 16283, ISO 140, ISO 3382 (room acoustics) and ISO 354.

DIRAC Room Acoustics Software Type 7841 is used for measuring room acoustic parameters in the field or laboratory according to ISO 3382 and ISO 18233 (application of measurement methods). In combination with DIRAC, Echo Speech Source Type 4720 performs speech intelligibility measurements in accordance with IEC 60268-16, quickly and easily. 

• DIRAC 6 Open Plan Office Measurements (YouTube)