Nested sampling applied in Bayesian room-acoustics decay analysis

Abstract

Room-acoustic energy decays often exhibit single-rate or multiple-rate characteristics in a wide variety of rooms/halls. Both the energy decay order and decay parameter estimation are of practical significance in architectural acoustics applications, representing two different levels of Bayesian probabilistic inference. This paper discusses a model-based sound energy decay analysis within a Bayesian framework utilizing the nested sampling algorithm. The nested sampling algorithm is specifically developed to evaluate the Bayesian evidence required for determining the energy decay order with decay parameter estimates as a secondary result. Taking the energy decay analysis in architectural acoustics as an example, this paper demonstrates that two different levels of inference, decay model-selection and decay parameter estimation, can be cohesively accomplished by the nested sampling algorithm.