Increasing the direct‐to‐reverberant ratio in rooms with a constant‐beamwidth, wide‐bandwidth loudspeaker array

Abstract

A constant‐beamwidth, wide‐bandwidth (CBWB) loudspeaker array was used to improve speech intelligibility in two rooms. The CBWB loudspeaker array maintained a constant beamwidth between 500 Hz to 4 kHz. The array had a narrow vertical beam pattern and a wide horizontal beam pattern. During the study, an increase in the direct‐to‐reverberant ratio was observed that correlated with an increase in speech intelligibility (measured with the STI method). The correlation between improved speech intelligibly and an increased direct‐to‐reverberant ratio will be discussed, and the relation between each source’s beam pattern and the direct‐to‐reverberant ratio will be presented. The array was compared to a typical PA source and showed increases in the direct‐to‐reverberant ratio. Room simulations were conducted with CATT‐Acoustic and compared to real‐world measurements. The study showed an increase in the direct‐to‐reverberant ratio in each room, which corresponded to improved speech intelligibility.