Room acoustic parameters in a physical scale model of the new Music Centre in Eindhoven: Measurement method and results

Abstract

A physical model with a scale of 1:10 has been constructed to aid in the design of the new Music Centre in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. This paper discusses the measurement method that has been used to acquire impulse responses in this model and to obtain important room acoustic parameters. As a model source a special high-frequency omni-directional sound source was used, fed by a swept sine wave. The microphone signal was deconvolved to obtain the impulse responses. From these impulse responses we calculated the reverberation time, the early decay time, the clarity, the Schwerpunktzeit (centre time) and the lateral efficiency. For the lateral efficiency a velocity-type microphone response is needed, which was obtained from a two-channel intensity probe. The paper concludes with a summary of the results that were obtained, indicating that the hall will sound very bright and spacious.