Acoustical Design of Auditoria and Music Halls

Abstract

The paper describes the present consensus of opinion among acousticians and musicians on what constitutes good acoustics in general-purpose auditoria and music halls. The relations between perceptual features like warmth, brilliance, intimacy, etc., on one hand and physical qualities like reverberation time and its dependency on frequency on the other are explored. The acoustical engineer's current design criteria and methods of achieving them in practice are reviewed briefly. Attention is then drawn to some of the uncertainties in the design, e.g., the calculation of the absorption of sound from the audience. The article concludes with the design of sound reinforcement systems for large halls.

Indexing Terms:

• Auditoria Design
• Reverberation
• Physics of Sound Waves

Additional information

Notes on contributors

B. S. Ramakrishna

RAMAKRISHNA, BS (Prof.): (b. 1921). Received Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Physics from Andhra University and Banaras Hindu University respectively and his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. He joined the Indian Institute of Science in 1949, where he is now Professor in Acoustics and Chairman of the Electrical Sciences Division. He is also in-charge of the Centre for Information Processing at the Indian Institute of Science. He was a visiting professor in acoustics at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 1967–68. He is a member of the International Commission on Acoustics since 1975. Professor Ramakrishna's interests lie in acoustics and information theory.