Lighting and Acoustics (ALL3516)

Architectural
Acoustic

Lecture 13
 Acoustics of Buildings

The study of acoustics of buildings can be split into the following

three main heads

1. Requirement and conditions of good acoustics

2. General Principles and factor in acoustical design
3. Practical cases some acoustical buildings
 Requirement and conditions of good acoustics
1. The initial sound should be of adequate intensity such that it
can be heard throughout the hall. Desired intensity may be
achieved through sound amplification system
2. The sound distribution should be even over the entire area
covered by audience, otherwise it will lead to acoustical
defects such as echoes, sound foci, and dead spots
3. The design of room intended for speaking purposes that he
prime objective is intelligibility ( clear and distinct) of speech
but in the design of music room, the prime objective is
enrichment of total quality and total blending of the sound.
4. All noises (internal or outside) should be reduced to such an
extent that they do not interfere with the normal hearing.
General Principle and Factor in Acoustical Design
Some of the general planning principles and factors which
play an important role in creating good acoustical conditions
are as follows:
1. Site selection and planning
2. Volume
3. Shape
4. Treatment of interior surfaces
5. Reverberation
6. Seat, Seating Arrangement
7. Sound Absorption
 Site selection and planning

• In selecting a site for a building, which deserves the

acoustical design and treatment, noises prevailing in that
area, like traffic on busy street, traffic on highways,
railways, airport, industrial establishments, etc, should be
considered for their effects.
• Depending upon the noise level of surrounding area on
site, orientation, layout etc the structural design should be
arranged to provide necessary noise reduction, so that
background noise level is not more than 40 to 45 decibels is
achieved within the hall.
 Volume (i.e., size and height)

• The volume of the room should be in proportion to the

intensity of sounds to be generated in it.
• The volume of musical concert should be large so the
sufficient space is made available for proper distribution of
music
• For Theater on the other hand , halls of small volumes are
used for comparatively weak sounds.
• Where an auditorium is to be used for both, i.e., music as
well as speech, the same may be provided with an
intermediate volume.
• In planning the volume of the hall, height is of greater
importance than either length or breadth.

• The following values may be taken as a rough guide for

deciding the volume of an auditorium:
1 Public Lecture Halls- 2.8 to 3.7 m cu/person
2 Cinema Theaters- 3.7 to 4.2 m cu/person
3 Musical Concert Halls- 4.2 to 5.6 m cu/person
 Shape
• The shape of the room is more important consideration in the acoustic design,
as it is the governing factor in correcting the defects, like echoes, sound foci,
dead spots, etc which is primarily due to reflection of sound waves.

• For better distribution of the intensity of sound it is not the volume only but
the shape of the auditorium also plays an important role.

• The volume is decided on the total no of audience, where as the shape is to be

geometrically arranged in view of better audibility( free from reflection
defects).
Usually the shape of the auditorium is expressed in terms of height, width and
length of the hall.

• There are no defined rules regarding the optimum height of a hall for good
acoustics. However, in practice, the ceiling height for a room or hall to be used
for speech and music is kept varying from 1/3rd to 2/3rd of the width of the
room or hall. The lower ratio should be adopted for very large and higher ratio
Relationships Between (H:W:L) Ratios and Volume per Seat
• The behavior of sound in a hall is different from that in the
open air and it is easier to create desirable acoustics
conditions in an auditorium rather than in an open air
theater.

• The floor plan of the auditorium may have many typical

possible shapes, like, rectangular, fan-shaped, horse shoe,
circular, oval etc
Thank you
Lighting and Acoustics (ALL3516)

Architectural
Acoustic

Lecture 14
 Treatment of interior surfaces
• Ceiling and side walls play an influential part in the
acoustical design. The ceiling and side walls should provide
favourable reflections or reinforce the sound that reaches
the rear parts of a large auditorium.
• Ceiling splays or spread outs and appropriately tilted
portions of the ceilings can be arranged or devised to
reinforce the sound.
• Plain side walls are normally found suitable. Convex-shaped
walls are, however, considered best to reduce the echoes
to great extent. As far as possible, rear walls should not be
provided as concave walls, unless treated with sound
absorbent materials.
• The concave ceiling surface such as domes, vaults
etc, must be avoided, as they result in formation of
echoes and sound foci defects.
• To avoid echoes further, a smooth ceiling should not
be parallel to the floor.
• to avoid sound foci due to curved ceilings, the radius
of curvature of the ceiling should be made at least
twice the height , or less than half the ceiling height.
• Practically no sound at all is reflected from organ
grilles or ventilation openings. A combination of
these devices is frequently used to increase
diffusion
• In order to avoid interfering echoes, effective
ceiling and wall reflectors should be within 8
meters of sound source.
• It should be further ensured that the path
difference between the direct and reflected sound
at no listening point should exceed 12 meters.
• By balcony recess, splayed ceilings, splayed side
walls, small curvature of rear walls, adequate
absorption materials can be used in combination
such that they help in reinforcing the sound by way
of favourable reflections.
 Reverberation
• A shorter optimum reverberation time is required for
reproduced sound such as gramophones, sound films etc,
than the original one on account of the fact that there is
already some reverberation present which has been
introduced at the time of recording
• Direct orchestral music requires 15% longer reverberation
time where as choral music is about 40% longer
• Reverberation time is not uniform throughout the
auditorium. If the average time of reverberation is 1.3
seconds, then it may be 1.5 seconds, in the main hall, 1.2
second in balcony and 1.1 seconds below the balcony
 Seat, Seating Arrangement
• Seating arrangement should be such as to ensure good
audibility and visibility
• Seating arrangement should be such as to cover an angle of
90 degree with horizontal and 30 degree vertical
• On this basis the distance of the front row works out to be
about 3.5 m for drama and it should be 4.5 m or more for
cinema
• Width of seat should be between 45 to 55 cm.
• Back to back distance should be at least 85cm but may be
more up to 105 cm depending upon the comfort desired.
Seat, Seating Arrangement
 Sound Absorption
• Effective use of sound absorbing materials depends upon
the zone of their installation
• Generally , the absorptive materials should be distributed
over the surfaces rather than concentrated over some
points
• The material placed near the edge, where ceiling meets a
wall, is about 2 times more effective than material placed
near the centre of the wall.
• If material is placed in the corner of the ceiling, then it is
about 3 times more effective than the material placed near
the centre of the wall
• Thus considerable saving in cost can be achieved by useful
positioning of the acoustical materials.
• Absorption coefficient of soft plaster is about 3 to 4
times than that of hard plaster
• Absorption coefficient of distemper is higher than
paint
• Wooden paneling has fairly height coefficient at
lower frequency where reverberation is high.
• Audience absorbs 70-80% of sound
• In churches and halls where bare wooden seats are
provided audience strength carries a great
importance
Thank you
Lighting and Acoustics (ALL3516)

Architectural
Acoustic

Lecture 15
Open Air Theatres
In an open air theatre there are no side walls or barriers and
hence there is no reverberation.
The selection of the site for an open air theatre should be done
very carefully considering the topographical, metrological and
acoustical considerations in the selection of the site.
The average noise level should not exceed 40dB for a satisfactory
site of a theatre
The slope of the seating area should not be less than 12 degree
for good audibility and visibility
A properly designed orchestra shell is must for an open air
theatre. This is required for two purposes,
i) The reflective power of the shell raises the average sound level
throughout the area uniformly
ii) The sell enables the stage performers to hear each other more
easily
• The simplest type orchestra shell consists of a hard
reflective wall behind the stage. An overhead
inclined reflector over the vertical wall behind the
stage is valuable addition, as it imparts the
reflected sound a direction which is nearly parallel
to the scope of the seating area.
• A sound amplification system should be provided,
especially where the strength of audience will be
more than 600.
• The direction of wind at the time of programme is
an important factor.
Cinema Theatres
• Though various shapes of floor plan have given good
acoustic conditions but a fan shaped plan with diverging
side walls has been considered to be best.
• The ceiling of the auditorium should be splayed type, with a
slight upward slope towards the rear side.
• The proportion of height, width and length should be
approximately as 1:2:3.
• The surface near the source of sound should be polished
hard and reflecting than those of distant or rear walls of
absorbent material.
• The echo defect should be prevented particularly by
avoiding curved surfaces and using sound absorbing
materials on the rear walls.
• Optimum reverberation time should be attained after
acoustical analysis and treatment for correction
• The volume should be between 3.5 to 4.5 m cu per seat
Class Lecture Room
• A room with dimensions as 7m in length, 8.5m in width
and 4m in height is considered satisfactory for about 40
students
• The ratio of length to width may be kept as 1.2 to 1 but
wide rooms are more satisfactory
• Noise level should be kept or brought down to 40dB
• A class room of children having less absorption on their
account, requires more absorptive material to be used.
Thank you
Lighting and Acoustics (ALL3516)

Architectural
Acoustic

Lecture 16
Radio-Broadcasting Studios
• The term studio is used to indicate a room where sound is
picked up by a microphone and it includes radio broadcasting
station, television station, and sound recording studio.
• The basic requirements of a radio broadcasting studios are:
1. Perfect sound proofing or noise insulation
2. Variable reverberation time
• To meet these two requirements, the following special
considerations should be made in the acoustic design of the
studios
• The floors, walls and ceiling must be rigid, massive
construction to minimize transmission of sound by diaphragm
like vibration and reduce resonant reflection to a minimum
• Different reverberation times are required for each programmed,
but also for each item in it, such speech, low and high frequency
of music, etc. this requirement is fulfilled by several means:
A) A number of studio rooms: Each with different absorption suited
to a particular type of broadcast. If there are number of studios in
the same building, it is preferable to locate all of them on the
same floor.
B) Hinged panels or Shutters: In some studios, arrangement of
hinged panels or shutters in the walls is adopted. One surface of
the rotatable panel is made absorptive while other one is kept
reflective.
C) Rotatable Cylinders: In this arrangement, the rotatable
cylinders consists of drums divided into number of parts
(usually three) with different absorptive materials. By means
of rack and pinion arrangement one or any no of these
surfaces can be rotated to expose any degree of absorption
at will to the room.
• The shape of the studio should be rectangular with flat
ceiling
• The ratio of H:W:L should be as 2:3:5
• The studio rooms must be reasonably air tight and should
be ventilated with conditioned air supplied through
silenced grilles.
• Air conditioning plants and such other equipments should
be suitably insulated so that their vibration are not carried
up to the working chambers of the studio
• The noise level in the studio should be brought down to 25-
30 dB.
• Heavy curtain and draperies may be used with advantage
to control or regulate the time of reverberation in the
studio.
Concert Halls
• The noise level should be brought down to 30-35 Db
• The reverberation time should be at least 1.6 seconds and
audience factor can be assumed to be full
• The volume per seat should be between 4.5 and 6 cu.m.
• There should be provision for hard reflecting surfaces about
the platform, flat ceiling having lining of reflecting materials
and absorbent distant walls
• The floor and seating area should be absorbent
• The use of wooden surfaces for lining results in resonance and
enrichment of musical notes
Multi-purpose Theatres
It is impossible to have a perfect acoustic conditions which will
be consistent in nature for manifold uses
However , a compromise has, therefore, to be made in
acoustical design in view of sound intensity, reverberation
time, geometrical design of the auditorium and degree of
absorption.
The only possible solution is to make use of adjustable
absorbents, such as hinged shutters, rotatable cylinders, heavy
folded curtains etc.
Thank you