An experimental comparative study of 20 Italian opera houses: Measurement techniques

Abstract

For ‘‘acoustical photography’’ we mean a set of measured impulse responses, which enable us to ‘‘listen’’ at the measured room by means of advanced auralization methods. Once these data sets have been measured, they can be employed in two different ways: objective analysis and listening test. In fact, it is possible to compute dozens of acoustical objective parameters, describing the temporal texture, the spatial effect and the frequency-domain coloring of each opera house. On the other hand, by means of the auralization technique, it becomes easy to conduct listening experiments with human subjects. This paper focuses principally on the development and specification of the measurement technique, which is the topic assigned to the research unit of Parma, to which the authors belong. It describes the hardware equipment, the software, the electro-acoustic transducers (microphones and loudspeakers), the measurement positions, the system for automatic displacement of the microphones and the conditions of the room during the measurements. Experimental results are reported about a couple of opera houses which were employed for testing the measurement procedure and showing the benefits of the new method against the previously employed ones.