A study of a renovated broadcast control room with a concave enclosure

Abstract

Broadcast control rooms are monitoring stations which can have many operators. One such room with ellipsoidal plan shaping was recently renovated. The original room had sufficient absorptive wall treatment, such that any focusing effects were less obvious, and the occupants could perform their work in relative comfort. The renovated space included much more computer screen equipment—so much so that the original treatment was covered, and the concave surface shaping was duplicated in hard surfaces. The resulting space was distracting for the occupants, due to whispering gallery effects, and at times could become excessively loud. In this talk, we discuss our process for measuring anomalous effects in the space using room impulse response measurement techniques, as well as our computer modelling approach, which helps us identify the surfaces implicated in the measured anomalies. We will also discuss our proposed solutions, and the challenges associated with each.