Effect of acoustic and visual stimuli on preference for different seating positions in a concert hall and an opera theater

Abstract

The sound fields and the views of several positions in a concert hall and an opera theater were simulated and the subjective preference for different seating positions was investigated. First the seat preference with and without visual stimuli under the conditions of 1) the original sound level (the sound pressure level at each position was maintained as the impulse response measurements in the auditoria) and 2) the equalized sound level were compared since the subjective scale of seat preference showed the highest correlation with sound level in the previous study investigating the opera theater [Sato et al., Acustica united with Acta Acustica, 98 (2012) 749-759]. Some positions were judged acoustically preferred but visually less preferred or vice versa. Thus, another preference test was conducted by using the combinations of the acoustic and the visual stimuli of different positions to further investigate the audio-visual interaction.