ACOUSTICAL CRITERIA AND

SPACE DESIGN
 Precedence Effect or Haas Effect
It happens when the sound gets reflected off a
wall or other solid surfaces, then the returning
sound waves reinforce the original sound, and
that phenomenon is called the precedence
effect.
Precedence Effect or Haas Effect
• Precedence effect is taking care of the helpful
reflective sound, which will help the sound wave or
the original sound source wave to get reinforced to
reach the people. And hence it is understood to
have considerable importance in architectural
acoustics.
• Sound, what is produced at this point source is
traveling to every corner of the space where the
audience is sitting. So, it is not only the speaker’s
voice, which is reaching but also the reflected
sound, which is helping it reach the ears of the
audience.
Precedence Effect or Haas Effect
• for SPEECH, reflected sound which comes within
first 25 milliseconds, helps reinforce the source
sound, and thus we can get higher intelligibility.
• for MUSIC a little longer than that time can be
accounted, that is the first 35 milliseconds and for
very romantic music we can go further up to 50
milliseconds.
And these all have been experimentally established
through geometrical ray diagrams.
Sound - to – Noise Ratio
• In 1935, two scientists, Ainger and Strutt, coined the
term “impression”, which is also called the “Q metric”.
And it is desired that if you have the signal (that is
source sound level) as equal as the noise level, then
the Q metric = 1.
• So, Q is the metric, Direct field energy (Ed) and the
helpful Early reflection (Ee), that which is coming in 25
milliseconds in case of speech, or 35 milliseconds in
case of music. And which is divided by the Unwanted
noise (that is the late portion of the reflected energy
(El) plus the Constant Noise energy (En) which is
already persisting (sound of moving fans, or the AC,
noise coming from the road).
 Signal-to-Noise Ratio
The degree to which noise
inhibits intelligibility is
dependent on the Signal-to-
A
At SNR=-6, you see that a single Noise Ratio.
word or a syllable is heard very i.e, Signal Level minus the
poorly, whereas a sentence is
quite well intelligible. So, you Noise Level (in decibels).
find that sentences are having
higher intelligibility even if the
Q = (Ed+Ee) / (El+En)
SNR is negative.

Q=1, Desirable
B Q>1, More +ve Signal Energy
Q<1, Highly Undesirable

Bradely (1986) hold that, a 10-

15db margin is a reasonable
choice for intelligibility.

Fig 1: ARTICULATION INDEX

Relationship between syllable, word and sentence intelligibility
 Fundamental requirement in designing
rooms for Speech (Dolle, 1972)
• There must be adequate loudness.
• Sound level must be relatively uniform.
• The reverberation characteristics of the room must be
appropriate.
• there must be a high signal-to-noise ratio.
• The background noise levels must be low and it should
not interfere with the listening environment.
• The room must be free from acoustical defects (long-
delayed reflections that might cause echoes, flutter
echoes, focusing, resonance etc.)
Acoustical requirement for classroom design

• For children specially primary section, 100%

intelligibility is desired.
• Children should also be heard by the teacher
• Low noise level and low reverberation or both is
desired.
• Additional aid for students with hearing or
language disability
• Avoid sources of noise such as HVAC ducts, Noise
from road etc.
Acoustical requirement for classroom design
 Rooms for Speech
Critical Distance how does this child at the last bench
still able to listen?

Sound level drop in a classroom:

• Reflected sound from the walls / ceiling provides sufficient loudness.
• Orientation of reflective elements is determine by the required coverage.
 Source sound pressure
equals reflective sound
pressure

Increase in Reverberation Time critical distance gradually decreasing.

rc = 𝑸𝑹/𝟏𝟔𝝅
The critical distance (rc) is the function of Q (degree of directivity of sound), R = Room
Constant (ie the reverberation time of the room, including the air absorption in metric
Sabine)