Abstract
This work deals with the improvement of the room acoustic quality of two medium sized meeting rooms through the investigation of the optimal placement of absorption and diffusive panels on the walls and ceiling. Acoustic measurements have been carried out in the existing untreated rooms with ODEON 13 room acoustics measurement and prediction software, and the Adobe Audition plugins Aurora. Simulations of different combinations of sound absorption and diffusion treatments have been carried out with the updated version of the software, ODEON 15. The panels were positioned in the meeting rooms following the guidelines of the DIN 18041 standard and the scientific literature. The results advise the application of absorptive materials on the ceiling or around the borders, creating a reflective middle area, and on the upper part of one the lateral walls, including the rear wall. Configurations with diffusers do not generally bring significant improvements. The Speech Transmission Index (STI) is a less sensitive parameter for the different acoustic scenarios, compared to Reverberation Time (T) and Clarity (C50). The research also outlined a design workflow, useful to successfully design meeting rooms and rooms for speech in general, which allows to determine the optimal number and location of acoustic panels and to minimize the costs.
Highlights
In a room for speech auditoria, such as a meeting room or classroom, it is important to guarantee a sustainable and never excessive vocal effort of the speaker [1,2,3] and a good speech intelligibility for the audience [4]
Speech intelligibility strongly depends on Reverberation Time (T) and on speech-signal-to noise ratio [5] and it is usually quantified with acoustical parameters such as the Speech Transmission Index (STI) [6] or Clarity (C50) [7]
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Summary
In a room for speech auditoria, such as a meeting room or classroom, it is important to guarantee a sustainable and never excessive vocal effort of the speaker [1,2,3] and a good speech intelligibility for the audience [4]. Speech intelligibility strongly depends on Reverberation Time (T) and on speech-signal-to noise ratio [5] and it is usually quantified with acoustical parameters such as the Speech Transmission Index (STI) [6] or Clarity (C50) [7]. The passive acoustics elements employed to control Reverberation Time are sound absorbers and diffusers. The positive effects of sound diffusers depend on the position of the source, the receiver and the diffusers themselves [10] and on the degree of scattering properties [11]. It has been found that the alternation between absorptive and reflective zones improves sound diffusion and that sound absorbers improve subjectively perceived speech quality slightly more than diffusers [12]
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