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Acoustics of churches aiming comparable measurements for posterior studies

Article · January 2011

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Roberta Smiderle Stelamaris Rolla Bertoli

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 ACOUSTICS OF CHURCHES AIMING COMPARABLE
MEASUREMENTS FOR POSTERIOR STUDIES
Roberta Smiderle and Stelamaris Rolla Bertoli
Department of Architecture and Construction, University of Campinas, C.P 6021,
CEP 13083-852, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
e-mail: ro.smiderle@gmail.com; rolla@fec.unicamp.br

The acoustics of churches is a subject that has been studied for a long time. It is considered a
cultural heritage, as well as the architectural parameters that involve the building. This is an
environment that aggregates a sort of different events, not only the mass, but lectures, chants
and several other activities that are related to religion and the way it is disseminated. Based
on these assumptions, the acoustic quality of such environment is of a complex variability.
Analyzing literature of churches it is found that measurements are done merging acoustic
quality parameters related to those situations but with a lack on standard measurements pro-
cedures, making posterior analysis very difficult. The objective of this research is studying a
Catholic church in Brazil, relate the appropriated places to position the source and receivers
according to the situations that was supposed to be measured and how the intelligibility is in-
fluenced by parameters as reverberation time and definition. Measurement is the best choice
in order to set acoustic parameters in churches as good or bad for a specific activity. These
measurements have been done with positions according to an international guideline pro-
posed on recent studies and the values found based on international standards using the im-
pulse response technique and a source-receiver arrangement according to the typology of the
building. This assures the quality of data, making it possible for future comparison and use in
future analysis. Instead of analyzing existent floor plans and sections which can have consid-
erable differences between project and the built edification, a new measurement has been
done with geodetic measurement equipment that provides a more accurate value for total area
and volume in the building.

1. Introduction
The acoustics of churches and worship places have been studied by many researchers groups
around the world. Those spaces have an important meaning as a cultural heritage, as well as the
architectural parameters that involve their building.
These groups are mostly found in Catholic countries in Europe, such as Italy1 and Portugal2
but also have been done in Brazil in recent years3, 4, and 5.
In the cultural heritage that is seen in the Catholic Church, buildings have their projects ex-
ecuted based on documents written after certain meetings e.g. The Vatican Council. That guidance
aim to project churches in order to properly attend the rituals that take place on those environments.
Churches are spaces that usually have a longer reverberation time, which can blend sounds
from words or musical notes, making impossible for the listener to separate them and fully compre-

ICSV18, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10-14 July 2011 1

18th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10-14 July 2011

hend their meaning. It happens because of the delay received by the listener when comparing the
sound itself and its reflections6.
Most buildings didn’t have a specific project during their construction, and those that had,
were being restored and renewed over the years. Because of that, we can hardly find a plan or sec-
tion that can be truly considered as the correct plan. For this study, in order to have precision for the
area and volume values, the edification was internally measured with surveying instruments.
This sort of constructions is commonly responsible for aggregate different activities, not only
the mass, but lectures, chants and several others that are related not only to religion and the way it is
disseminated but for the community in with the build is located.
The aim of this research was to study a Catholic church in Brazil, establishing the most ap-
propriate places to position sound sources and receivers positions according to the real situations
and how the intelligibility is influenced by parameters as reverberation time and definition.
Measurements positions were established according to an international guideline7 proposed on
recent studies and measurements method based on ISO 3382-1:20098 using the impulse response
technique and a source-receiver arrangement according to the typology of the building. This assures
the quality of data, making possible future comparisons and future analysis.
In order to have accurate measurements, instead of analyzing the existent floor plans and sec-
tions, which can have considerable differences between project and the built edification, a new
measurement has been done with surveying measurement equipment.

2. Object of study
Object of study is a Catholic church located in the neighborhood of the University of Campi-
nas (UNICAMP) in Campinas, Brazil. The selected church is Santa Isabel. (Fig. 1) This church is
the principal in the district where it is located.

Figure 1. Internal view of Santa Isabel church and a set position of the equipments used.
It presents a symmetrical floor plan; the nave has twenty six wooden pews disposed in thir-
teen rows and aisles for upstanding people and a few benches. This church was build in the 60’s and
had an intervention not longer than ten years ago.
The church has walls built in masonry, painted with a granulated tint mixture, and has plaster
details. Nave’s floor has tile coating and aisles coating made with marble’s powder. The altar and
lateral parts is all covered with granite.
In this last renovation a new wooden ceiling was built in order to let it more comfortable con-
sidering the heat. They did not intent to improve the acoustic but the result was considerable. Also,
as we can see in the Fig. 1, fabric panels with scenes were positioned on top of all the arches, except
for the central in the altar.

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 18th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10-14 July 2011

The sidewalls have five large rectangular stained glass windows each and a small circular one
above the lateral doors. The ventilation happens through an exhaustion system compound by fun-
nels on the roof and a small bottom opening between the window and the wall. Wooden doors com-
plete the materials used inside the church.
By studying this church, is intended to start an adequate process to apply it in other churches
in Campinas in order to have comparable measurements.

3. Spatial measurement
A spatial measurement was carried out in order to provide a precisely value relating plan area
and volume of the building. It was done using equipments for surveying engineering.

3.1 Choice of measurement

Equipment used for measuring the church in study was a set of surveying equipment for elec-
tronic trigonometric leveling. The intention was to have a more accurate value of the floor plan and
the volume of the building.
This choice was based on the assumption that commonly the buildings show a different meas-
urement values than the one in the project. Albeit a preliminary project exists, this is related to the
fact that usually at the time of construction changes can be done according to funds, materials, time
or even workers.
In addition, over the years, sometimes changes must be done to set the edification according
to new necessities. So the “as built” hardly is seen as in the original project.

3.2 Measurement equipment

To reach a more accurate spatial value, the set of equipment used were a Nikon DTM-322 To-
tal Station, connected to a tripod. Although this equipment does not need a prism because it has a
laser sight that can measure precisely, the prism was needed because of the furniture layout of the
church which was in a displacement hiding some points.
Albeit this equipment was enough to give precise measures, in order to help and make the
measurement faster, related to the fact that there couldn’t be spent a long time on it, a Leica Disto
D2 laser distance meters was responsible for a few complement measurements of the internal area
of the building.

3.3 Measurement results

The measurement was taken according to parameters that professionals of surveying normally
have to work on open fields. It resulted in some data, which were correlated and nominated (Fig. 2)
using a few adaptations of regular nomenclature found in the literature9.

Figure 2. Diagram representing the relation of data with a total station

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18th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10-14 July 2011

These data were then calculated on an excel file according to those the equations
Eq. (1) (2) (3) (4)10:
Dn = Dv + Hi − Hs . (1)
Dv = Dh × tgV . (2)
Dh = Di × cosV . (3)
Dt = Dv + Hi . (4)

Where Dn is elevation; Dv is vertical distance; Dt is total height; Dh is horizontal distance;

Di is distance that is seen; Hi is the equipment height; Hs is the point view height; Z zenithal angle;
V vertical angle and (X,Y) refers to the level quota of the point measured.
With this table, the drawings could be done and we could have the real dimensions of the
floor plan (Fig. 3) and for the section (Fig. 4).

Figure 3. Floor plan of Santa Isabel church with source and receiver positions.

Figure 4. Section of Santa Isabel church.

4. Acoustical measurement
An acoustical measurement was carried out according to a guideline written by researchers
aiming to set a method of research for churches and worship places that allow a comparison be-
tween the works done all around the world. Guidelines used are related to equipments and source
and receivers positions7.
The acoustic parameters followed ISO 3382-1/20098 standard for performance spaces were:
reverberation time (T30), early decay time (EDT), clarity (C80), definition (D50), speech transition
index (STI) and background noise. Due to its size, volume and function, churches can be compared
to performance spaces.

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 18th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10-14 July 2011

In this study, the measurable parameters that were selected refer to a basic set up shown in the
guideline. This choice was made to allow that measurements could be done in a short time, accord-
ing to the schedule of the team involved and the church without activities.

4.1 Source position

In this church, the location of the sound sources (Fig. 3) was settled7 in order to attend the
principal positions that normally are used there. The altar (S1), as the centre of the liturgical action,
as is the lectern (S2); congregation (S3), once it has an active participation singing; choir (S4) that
is present in most activities and second choir (S5) used in special activities.
Those positions were chosen because the speech and choir are the most important during the
celebrations in this church and the availability in desired conditions with time and all team together
was really short.
All the positions were placed as shown in Fig. 3 and distant 1.5 m above the floor. In (S1), it
was distant 1.5 m from the vertical surface in front of the altar; (S2), (S3), (S4) and (S5), distant 1 m
at least from all reflecting walls, as standard8, except for the lectern, where the sound source in or-
der to simulate human voice.

4.2 Receiver positions

The choice for receiver positions (Fig. 3) was even more subjective than the source locations.
The parameters taken into account aimed the maximization of the numbers for both position and the
desirable situation inside the space.
Receivers were mostly placed in the main listening area even it not being as specific as in a
performing space. So, was taken into account the area of pews and also the aisle with standing
people. In this study was also considered the priest chair as a receiver position. It because once the
congregation singing and reading was considered, the priest has connection with their answers and
replies.
The positioning suggested by the standard8, should be ¼ wavelength far from reflecting sur-
faces and 1.2 m above the floor. The distance taken for wavelength was 1 m7.
Positions (01), (02) and (03) were placed in order to attend the pews in the congregation. And,
being this church symmetrical, as a comparison review, (04) and (05) were positioned in a mirrored
way the receivers (01) and (03). Attending the aim to analyze the aisle position, a central receiver
was positioned as shows (06), and for the priest chair (07).

4.3 Set of source and receiver

In order to afford the largest comparison possible for this church and futures works, according
to the time spent on the measurement, a combination was made relating the five source positions
and seven receiver positions. Different combinations weren't done, aiming to let it faster for the
positioning of the equipments used. As a result of that, combining receiver and source position,
thirty five measurement combinations were taken.

4.4 Measurement equipment

Following the guideline7 for this basic set up the equipments used had to be a sound source
complying with the ISO 338211; standard, the sound signal could be noise, impulse or deterministic;
the microphones omnidirectional; and the frequency range had to fill at least 125Hz to 4000Hz, in
octave bands.
The choice was related to the equipments that were offered by the Laboratory of Environmen-
tal Comfort and Applied Physics – LACAF-UNICAMP – an omnidirectional sound source type
4296, which uses in a dodecahedral configuration a cluster of twelve loudspeakers; it was connected
to a power amplifier type 2716; and a sound level meter type 2238 Mediator, that has been cali-
brated with a sound calibrator type 4231; with all equipments Brüel & Kjær (B&K). The signal was

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18th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10-14 July 2011

a linear sweep7, generated by Dirac Room Acoustics Software type 7841. The sweep due to the vo-
lume was lasting 5.36s.

5. Results and discussion

As stated before, the frequency range for this measurement had to fill in octave bands, at
least 125Hz to 4000Hz. The measurable acoustical parameters were reverberation time (T30), early
decay time (EDT), clarity (C), definition (D50), speech transition index (STI) and background noise.
To allow comparison in the graphics the standard8 was followed. According to this, a fre-
quency averaging for the parameters must be selected, which is an arithmetical average selecting
the values for the octave bands for frequencies 500Hz and 1000Hz.
The results for STI measured in the interior of this church are related on Table 1. It shows the
association between each sound source (S1 to S5) and the receiver positions (01 to 07) as it can be
seen in the floor plan (Fig. 3). Table 2 shows the distance value between sound sources and receiver
positions. Albeit a representative variation can be seen in distance the values vary slightly for STI,
except for receiver (07) with sound sources (S1) and (S2). The values measured are between 0,41
and 0,50. It qualifies the intelligibility in this church as poor or fair. The best results are shown
when the sound source is positioned in the congregation (S3).

Table 1. STI Table 2. Distance

STI DISTANCE (m)
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 01 02 03 04 05 06 07
S1 0,49 0,43 0,42 0,47 0,41 0,42 0,57 S1 5,21 8,86 12,73 5,21 12,73 10,88 5,9
S2 0,47 0,43 0,41 0,49 0,44 0,41 0,53 S2 7,47 10,66 14,26 5,23 13,23 13,12 5,72
S3 0,41 0,5 0,45 0,45 0,47 0,5 0,43 S3 4,45 2,8 5,27 4,45 5,27 6,29 13,82
S4 0,44 0,44 0,43 0,5 0,42 0,42 0,45 S4 10,1 12,43 15,46 5,76 13,04 15,42 8,51
S5 0,43 0,45 0,45 0,42 0,46 0,44 0,46 S5 13,9 10,01 6,26 13,9 6,26 11,04 23,95

Figure 5 shows Reverberation Time values measured between sound sources and receiver po-
sitions. The RT varies from 2,65s to 2,89s. These results are considered high either for the condition
of speech or music (other than church music) in the building, despite worst for speech. The lowest
variation for RT was measured when the sound source was positioned in the congregation.
The Early Decay Time (EDT) parameters for these sets are show in Figure 6. The values vary
from 2,2s to 3,0s. Comparing to RT the EDT range is wider and in most of the positions higher than
RT, so the sensation of reverberation is higher in some regions inside the church.
The parameter of Definition (D50) is associated to the intelligibility of the speech and it’s con-
sidered as a adequate when is higher than 0,50. Figure 7 shows the results for the several relations
of sound source and receiver. As can be seen, except for (S1) and (07), that represents two people in
the altar, the values were lower than 0,50, indicating that the intelligibility in this church is inade-
quate. As we could also see in the results for STI (Table 1).
Figure 8 relates the values for Clarity (C80) for this set. It is referred to the quality of the space
for music, what can be considered as ‘intelligibility’ for music. The recommended value for this
parameter be considered as good for musical presentation is between - 4dB and + 4dB.
In this study, most of the results for C80 are related between 0dB and – 4dB. Particularly in
this church, the musicians are placed in the position (S4). And for this position, we found the worst
results for C80. It shows the need for replacement of the musicians. In other hand, the original posi-
tion for the choir (S5) has the best distribution for C80 for the different positions for receiver.
Finally analyzing the background noise, the internal Sound Pressure Level (LP) according to
the frequencies selected by the guideline7 is shown in the Figure 9.

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 18th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10-14 July 2011

According to the Brazilian standard12 for dB(A) and NC values, churches and worship places
must have their values between 40 – 50 dB(A) and NC 35 – 45 to be considered as a comfortable
place. The global value in dB(A) found in this research is LPeqdB(A)= 35,8 dB(A). As we could see in
the graphs, this value is listed in the referred interspace, and then it can be considered as good.

Figure 5. RT. Figure 6. EDT.

Figure 7. Definition. Figure 8. Clarity.

Figure 9. Sound Pressure Level. Figure 10. Noise Criteria.

6. Conclusions
Albeit difficult to reach the maximum performance for the several activities that happens in-
side a church, these have inestimable historical value. However, these activities are generally
changing according to new documents written by Catholic Church. Because of that, hardly we will
find the original structure and configuration; they are often found in a state of change as it may

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 18th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10-14 July 2011

seem, still under the threat of arbitrary interventions performed with not always technical expertise
or strict concern for their historical and musicological significance. This article is an effort to relate
the parameters that can be measured to analyze the efficiency of the building for the main activities
that can occur inside it. These are based on assumptions regarding its original conditions, and en-
titlement to restoration in accordance with the standards and international studies13.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish thank FAPESP to afford this research according to the project
nº 2010/04344-8; Dr. Jorge Luiz Alves Trabanco, Dr. Diogenes Cortijo Costa and Wagner Guidi,
members of the DGT-UNICAMP – Department of geotechnics and transports – for the immensura-
ble help in improving the methods of spatial measurement with the knowledge and the equipments;
LACAF-UNICAMP – Laboratory of environmental comfort and applied physics for the equip-
ments; for helping with measurements and allowing it, Obadias P. Silva Jr., Delourdes Lorenzzetti,
Alexandre V. Maiorino, Vanessa F. M. Takahashi and the member of the church the
Rev. Canon José Luís Araújo.

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