Design considerations for good theatre acoustics

Lee-Jong Lee and Michael F. E. Barron

Citation: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 77, S88 (1985); doi: 10.1121/1.2022569
View online: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2022569
View Table of Contents: https://asa.scitation.org/toc/jas/77/S1
Published by the Acoustical Society of America

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FRIDAY MORNING, 12 APRIL 1985

VILLA CAPRI: NAVARRO/McKINNEY, 8:30 A.M. TO 12:15 P.M.

SessionNN. Architectural AcousticsII: Theatres for Drama Performance: Recent Experiencesin Acoustical
Design--Poster Session

Richard H. Talaske
c/o R. LawrenceKirkegaard& Associates,
Inc., P.O. Box 186, DownersGrove,Illinois 60515

Richard E. Boner
c/o Boner AssociatesInc., P.O. Box 5338, Austin, Texas 78763

Postersdescribingover50 recentlyconstructed
Drama Theatreswill bedisplayedin the Villa Capri Banquet
Hall fromTuesdaythroughFriday.The lasttwohoursof thisspecialsession
will bedevotedto discussionof the
designsby the authors.

Invited Papers

8:30

NNI. Orchestra pit designconsiderations.

A. H. Benade(PhysicsDepartment, Case Western Reserve
University,Cleveland,OH 44106)

The firstdesignpriorityisto providegoodintra-pit communication, permittingthe orchestrato coordinate

tuning,timing,andloudness. Secondly, performerson stageneedclearsignalsfromthepit, to coordinate their
effortswith thoseof the orchestra(the reversepath is important,but the conductorcan usuallymitigate
problemsthat arise).Finally,thegoodoverallperformance achievedby thesemeansmustbeproperlytransmit-
tedto theaudience.Thesegoalsarechieflymetby providinganadequatesupplyof earlyreflections (t •<30 ms},
eachof which is a reasonablycoherentversionof an originallyradiatedsound.Designer'sresources include
reflection,quasicoherent scattering,and absorptionvia properlyorientedsurfaceswhosedimensionscorre-
spondto wavelengths in themusicallycritical250to 1500-Hzrange.Electronicaidsareriskyif attentionisnot
givento theneedto assuremultiplesignalpaths.[Work supported by NSF.]

NN2. Designconsiderationsfor goodtheatreacoustics.Lee-JongLee (Departmentof Building,Heriot-Watt

University, Edinburgh,Scotland)and Michael F. E. Barron (Departmentof Architecture,University of
Cambridge,Cambridge,England)

Despitecontinuedeffortsby manyresearchers, thereis little informationavailablefor acousticaldesignof

theatres.An investigation,
aimedat identifyingimportantdesignelementswascarriedout. Extensiveobjective
measurements weremadein 12unoccupied Britishtheatres.Of theobjectivemeasures for speechintelligibility,
the 50-msearlyenergyfractionisusedin the analysisof the results.The significance of geometricalreflections
throughthedesignof ceiling,sidewalls,balconies, andthroughtheprovisionof specialoverheadreflectorshas
beenexamined.The effectsof directionalityof the speakersourcein relationto thesedesignelementshavealso
beenstudied.The resultssuggestthat it wouldbepossibleto predictimportantreflections andtherebytheearly
soundlevelasa functionof designcharacteristics fromarchitecturaldrawings.The resultsof latesoundenergy
havebeencomparedwith theoryand the agreementwasfoundto be good.The studyhasfoundsomeof the
recentlycompleted theatreshavinglowvaluesof the 50-msearlyenergyfraction.[Worksupported by SERC.]

9:30

NN3. Speechintelligibility predictionin rooms.J. S. Bradley (Divisionof Building Research,National

Research
CouncilCanada,Ottawa,Ontario,CanadaK1A 0R6)
Threedifferenttypesof acousticalmeasures werecomparedaspredictors of speechintelligibilityin rooms
of variedsizeandacoustical conditions.Theseincludedsignal-to-noise
typemeasures, thesoundtransmission
indexderivedfrommodulation transferfunctions,
anduseful-to-detrimentalsoundratiosobtainedfromearly-
to-latesoundratios,speechandbackground levels.The mostsuccessfulformsof eachtypeof measurewereof
similarpredictionaccuracy,buttheuseful-to-detrimentalratiosbasedona 0.05-searlytimeintervalweremost
accurate.Severalphysicalmeasures, althoughbasedonverydifferentcalculationprocedures, werefoundto be
quite stronglyrelatedto eachother.

$88 J. Acoust.Soc.Am.Suppl.1, Vol.77, Spring1985 109thMeeting:Acoustical

Societyof America $88