AP-215 LIGHTING & ACOUSTIC

ACOUSTICAL DESIGN FOR

ENCLOSED SPACE - AUDITORIUM
AUDITORIUM PURPOSE

An auditorium is a place where people come to "audit",

it's a place to listen.

It won't matter if the auditorium is big and beautiful,

warm and comfortable, if the people can't understand
what is being said in the auditorium, it just isn't doing
the right job.
 AUDITORIUM FACTS

Much of the sound we hear in

an auditorium is reflected sound

Some reflections are good,

others not so good. Early
reflections help us understand
speech

Echoes cannot be detected if

you stand close to wall

Noise blocks our ability to hear

 SPACES REQUIREMENT

•Low ambient noise level from internal and external

sources
•Reasonable level of acoustic gain
•Appropriate reverberation time
•Avoid artifacts such as echoes

Hearing conditions in any auditorium are considerably

affected by purely architectural considerations
Shape : Layout of boundary surfaces
Dimensions : Seating arrangements
Volume : Audience capacity
ACOUSTICAL STANDARD FOR AUDITORIUM

Acousticians analyzing the best-sounding concert halls

find that there are some standard ratios that minimize
the number of standing waves or resonances.
The best ratio of length-to-width is
about 1.55 to 1,
and a
height-to-width ratio of
about 0.67 to 1
ACOUSTICAL STANDARD FOR AUDITORIUM

Volume influences both reverberance and loudness.

For halls of high capacity, a low volume per seat
helps preserve acoustical energy.
ACOUSTICAL STANDARD FOR AUDITORIUM
NBC RECOMMENDATION

1. Sources of noise that have to be considered in concert halls, opera

house, theatres and similar auditorium buildings are as follows:

 Outdoor noise entering through walls, roofs, doors, windows or ventilation

openings.
 Noise from any other hall in the same building.
 Noise from foyers, service rooms and other ancillary rooms, particularly rehearsal
rooms.
 Noise from air conditioning plant, etc.

2. For listening to speech or music, a very low background noise level is

desirable; in concert halls especially the quietest possible conditions
should be provided.

3. Sites at crossroads or close to steel railway bridges, religious places or

near churches where bell ringing is practiced, should be avoided unless
very high standards of structural sound insulation are contemplated.
4. The minimum standard of sound reduction index, RW likely to be
required for the envelope of an auditorium in a city to protect it against
external noise is of the order of 65 dB for a concert hall or 55-60 dB for a
theatre.

5. Ventilation intakes and returns should be positioned so as to avoid

exposure to noise, and in addition sufficient length of both inlet and outlet
ducts should be provided with carefully designed silencers.

6. When there are two halls meant for separate use in the same building,
especially if one of them is a concert hall, it is doubtful whether a ‗single‘
wall can be adequate for insulating the two halls unless it is designed with a
wide unbridged cavity. Separation by planning is preferable.
7. The insulation of the internal walls should be adequate to protect the
auditorium from these noise sources and the insulation should not be
bypassed by openings, doorways, etc. The general noise due to banging of
doors also needs to be taken care of; soft sealing materials should be
provided for all doors to ensure quiet closing.

8. For detailed acoustical design of auditoria and conference halls reference

may be made to good practice.

9. In case of Cinema, the main objective of the design should be to control

noise from adjacent screens, the projection area, the foyer, and outside the
cinema.
ROOM SHAPE
• The talker-to-audience distance can be
NORMAL SURROUND
minimized by carefully considering the
room geometry.

• A rectangular shoebox-type hall, with

the stage across one narrow end, may
be excellent for music where an
audience can be seated farther away
and a greater ratio of reverberant
sound is desirable.

• However, a rectangular geometry is

only suitable for a relatively small
speech hall.
ROOM SHAPE

• For greater seating capacity, the side walls should be splayed from the stage.

• Splayed side walls allow greater seating area that is relatively close to the stage.

• The splayed walls can usefully reflect sound energy to the rear of the hall.

• A side-wall splay may range from 30° to 60°; the latter is considered a maximum

angle, given the directionality of speech.

 VOLUME

• For unamplified speech, it is often necessary to limit the overall room volume. This
is because a large volume requires more speech power than a small room.
•
• This volume minimization is contrary to rooms designed for music, where a
relatively large volume is desirable.

• In a face-to-face conversation, an unamplified talker may generate a SPL level of

about 65 dB. This level decreases 6 dB for every doubling of distance. Sound is
also attenuated as it travels through the hall because of air absorption.

• To support audible levels, the audience area must be placed as close as possible
to the talker. This minimizes sound attenuation, provides a more direct sound
path, and also improves visual recognition which improves intelligibility.
 ABSORPTION

• In small speech halls, the majority of absorption is provided by the audience;

therefore, the room surfaces can be relatively reflective. In larger halls, where
there is greater room volume per seat, relatively greater room absorption is
needed.

• Beneficially, a reflective front stage area provides strong early reflections that are

integrated with the direct sound and enhance it. On the contrary, strong late

reflections and reverberation, such as from rear walls, would not be integrated

and may produce echoes.

• To accommodate this, the stage area and front of the hall are made reflective,

and absorption is placed in the seating area and rear of the hall.
 CEILING

• In many large halls, ceiling reflectors, sometimes called clouds, are used to direct
sound energy from the stage to the seating area.

• Both dimensions of a square reflecting panel should be at least five times the
wavelength of the lowest frequency to be reflected.

• When ceilings are high, care must be taken to ensure that path-length differences
between direct and reflected sound are not too great, and particularly should not
exceed 20 msec.
• In some cases, clouds are made absorptive, to avoid late reflections.
 FLOORS

• A sloping (raked) floor allows a more direct angle of incidence which in turn
allows less absorption. Generally, the slope of an auditorium floor should not
be less than 8°.

• The floor of a lecture-demonstration hall might have a 15° angle of inclination.

• Staggering of seats is also recommended.

WALLS
• Reflections from the rear wall would create a long path-length difference to a
listener at the front of the hall. This can result in audible echoes, particularly
because of the otherwise low reverberation level.

• A reflective concave rear wall would also undesirably focus sound.

• For these reasons, the rear wall of a large hall is usually absorptive.

• In some cases, when added absorption is undesirable because of decreased

reverberation time, reflective diffusers can be placed on the rear wall.
GENERAL ACOUSTICAL PROBLEM IN AUDITORIUM

1. REVERBERATION
2. ECHO
3. DELAYED REFLECTION
4. SOUND SHADOW /DEAD SPOT
5. SOUND CONCENTRATION/SOUND FOCI
CALCULATION OF REVERBERATION TIME

Rt = 0.161 V/A = Rt = 0.161 V

A1.a1+ A2.a2…
V= Volume of the room in cu.m
S = speed of sound in m
A = absorption in sabin
A1, A2,…are the areas of the various
types of absorbing surfaces
a1, a2, … are the
absorption coefficients
of the respective
surfaces
 ECHO

Not all sound that hits matter is absorbed. Some of it is reflected. That
means sound bounces off the solid matter the way a tennis ball bounces off
a wall. Sound reflected back to its source is an echo.

1.An echo is produced when the reflected sound wave reaches the ear just
when the original sound from the same source has been already heard.

2.Thus there is repetition of sound.

3.The sensation of sound persists for 1/10th of a second after the source
has ceased.

4.Thus an echo must reach after 1/10th second of the direct sound.

5.Multiple echoes may be heard when a sound is reflected from a number of

reflecting surfaces placed suitably.
This defect can be removed
• by selecting proper shape of the hall
• by providing rough and porous interior surfaces to disperse the energy
of echoes
SOUND FOCI

• Some times shape of the hall makes sound waves to concentrate in some
particular areas of hall creating a sound of large quality. These spots are
called sound foci.
SOUND FOCI

This defect can be removed

• Geometrical design shapes of the interior faces
• Providing highly absorbent materials on critical areas (curved spaces)
DEAD SPOT & SOUND SHADOW

1. This defect is the out come of formation of sound foci.

2. Because of high concentration of reflected sound at sound foci ,

there is deficiency of related sound at some other points.

3. These spots are known as dead spots where sound intensity is so low
that it is insufficient for hearing.

This defect can be removed

• This defect can be removed by suitably placing diffusers and reflectors
• Right proportions of internal spaces
 EXTERNAL NOISE

• External noises from vehicles , traffic engines , factories , machines

etc. may enter the hall either through the openings or even through
walls and other structural elements having improper sound
insulation.

This defect can be removed

• by proper planning of the hall with respect to its surroundings and by

proper sound insulation of external walls
COMPONENTS OF A TYPICAL SOUND REINFORCEMENT SYSTEM

1. Microphones
2. Mixing Consoles
3. Amplifiers
4. Equalizers
5. Compressor & Limiter
6. Loudspeakers
7. Cables & transformer
 MICROPHONES
• First link of sound amplification.
•Converts acoustic vibrations into
voltage vibrations.
•This voltage vibration is transferred
to amplifier via cable or wireless
system for further processing.

MIXING CONSOLES
Typically known as sound board, mixing desk etc. Used
for combining, routing, and changing the level (dynamics
of audio signals).
P.A. system uses it to set microphones to an appropriate
level, and add recorded sound into the mix.
• Channel Inputs
• Master Output control
• Audio level metering
AMPLIFIERS
• Usually used to amplify signals such as music or
speech.
• Generally are a singe unit consisting of pre & power
amplifiers. Pre amplifier amplify small voltages (500
mV to 1 V).
• Power amplifier amplify output voltage of pre
amplifier to the level of loudspeakers. (range 100 mV
to 10 V)

EQUALIZERS
Gives extensive control over whole sound frequency spectrum by means of presence (gain)
and absence (attenuation) filters. Can equalize whole audio chain from microphone to
speakers.
Basic tone controls.
Band-pass filters
Parametric equalizer
Parametric triple Q-filter
Graphic equalizers
COMPRESSOR & LIMITER
• Compressor reduces input signal variations
above the threshold to about one third
without introducing distortion.
• Limiter restricts the output level to a fixed
range for all input levels.
LOUDSPEAKERS
A loudspeaker is an electro acoustic transducer that produces
sound in response to an electrical audio signal input.
Cone loudspeakers are the most commonly used units.
The drivers are named :-
• subwoofers (for very low frequencies)
• woofers (low frequencies)
• mid-range speakers (middle frequencies)
• tweeters (high frequencies)
• super tweeters optimized for the highest audible frequencies
REINFORCEMENT BY LOUDSPEAKER

Sound amplification system are used for the following purpose:

To reinforce the sound level when the sound source is too weak to be
heard.

To provide amplified sound for overflow audience.

To minimize sound reverberation.

To provide artificial reverberation in rooms which are too dead for
satisfactory listening.

To operate electronic organs, chimes etc.

MATERIAL

There are following types of materials used in auditorium

1. SOUND ABSORBERS
2. SOUND DIFFUSERS
3. NOISE BARRIERS
4. SOUND REFLECTORS
AIR-BORNE AND IMPACT SOUND
INSULATION
The indirect transmission can be reduced
by measures such as the following:
Increasing the mass of the flanking
walls

Increasing the mass of the partition

and bonding it to the flanking walls;

Introducing discontinuities in the

indirect paths;

Erecting independent wall linings

adjacent to the flanking walls to prevent
energy entering the flanking
construction

Sealing any air gaps and paths

through ducts.