An acoustic laboratory in a university generally serves two functions: education and research. In planning, budgetary considerations constitute a decisive factor. A low budget can result in the laboratory being relegated to fairly simple measurements but some degree of ingenuity can widen the scope of experimentation, as has been proven in Take Five demonstrations at ASA meetings. A more elaborate facility would enable measurements in the ultrasonic region in addition to those in the audio range. The cost of maintenance and eventual upgrading should be figured into the planning and design of any facility. Necessary instrumentation include means of measuring sound pressure levels and intensities, executing spectral analyses (preferably in real time), generating and synthesizing signals, performing fairly standard measurements for sound absorption coefficients; and it would be desirable that specific enclosure conditions be simulated (viz., through the use of anechoic and reverberation chambers). Research programs generally require more sophisticated instrumentation, but fortunately fairly recent advances in microelectronics permit integration of acoustic monitoring functions into personal computers at considerably lower cost than would be the case if individual measurement instruments were purchased separately.