Architectural Acoustics

Building Utilities 3 – Acoustics and Lighting

Systems (Topic 4)
• Audibility is affected by:
1. Shape of the Room
2. Size of the Room
3. Room furnishings
4. Position of Source of Sound
5. Reverberation time

Guidelines for Good

Audibility of Theaters
1. Shape of Room
(in plan) –
preferably
rectangular or
trapezoidal in
direction of sound.
Square, circular or
oval shapes, etc.
are acoustically
unfavourable.

1. Shape of the Room

2. Size of Room
(without the aid
of loudspeakers)
– Normal speech
is audible for a
distance of about
20-30 meters; 13
meters to the side
of the speaker, and
10 meters behind
the speaker.

2. Size of Room
3. Room furnishings – in
general, solid roofs and
walls are less
satisfactory than
suspended ceilings and
cladding with
intervening voids which
will resonate with the
sound. In design of
heating and ventilation
systems avoid rising
warm air currents
between source of sound
and listener. Absorbents
should be provided on
rear walls near a back
seats on dome surfaces
and solid balcony
railings.

3. Room Furnishings
4. Position of
Source of Sound
– should be in
front of a hard
reflecting surface
and, where room
height is
excessive,
reflective
sounding boards
above sound
source are
recommended.

4. Position of Source of
Sound
5. Reverberation
Time –
reverberation
should be
registered by the
listener as gradual
dying down of
sound.

5. Reverberation Time
Sound is absorbed by a
mechanism which
converts the sound into
other forms of energy
and ultimately heat.
Most manufactured
materials depends
largely on their
porosity for the
absorptivity.

Sound Absorption
1. Pre-fabricated Units
2. Acoustical Plaster and Sprayed
3. Acoustical Blankets

Types of Acoustical
Materials
1. Pre-fabricated
units – acoustical
tile, wall boards,
tile boards, and
absorbents sheets.

1. Pre-fabricated Units
2. Acoustical Plaster
and Sprayed –
these materials
comprised of plastic
and porous materials
applied with a
trowel; and fibrous
materials, combined
with binder agents,
which are applied
with a spray gun or
blower.

2. Acoustical Plaster and

Sprayed
3. Acoustical
Blankets –
Blankets are made
up chiefly if
mineral or wood
wool, glass fibers,
kapok batts, and
hair felts.

3. Acoustical Blankets
All sound systems consist of three basic elements:
1. Input devices
2. Amplifiers
3. Loudspeaker Systems

Sound Reinforcement
Systems
1. Input Devices –
microphones,
recorded
materials, radio
sources,
internet/digital
sources.

1. Input Devices
2. Amplifiers –
Amplifiers must be
rated to deliver
sufficient power to
produce intensity
levels of 80db for
speech, 95db for
light music, and
105db for
symphonic music.
Equalizers is also
important because a
system not equipped
for equalization is
not a professional
system.

2. Amplifiers
3. Loudspeakers – It
is the heart of any
sound system and
obviously must be
of the same high
quality as the
remainders of the
system.

3. Loudspeakers
• Loudspeaker system design and placement must be
coordinated with the architectural design. The two
principal types of loudspeaker system are central and
distributed.

Loudspeaker
Consideration
1. Central – these
are carefully
designed array of
directional high
frequency units
combined with
less directional
low-frequency
units, placed
above and slightly
in-front of the
primary speaking
position.

1. Central Loudspeaker
System
2. Distributed – It
consists of a series
of low-level
loudspeakers
located over-head
throughout the
space.

2. Distributed
Loudspeaker System
END OF TOPIC 4