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ACOUSTICS
Goals and Objectives
Room acoustics is the study of sound - primarily the production, control, transmission, reception and effects of sound waves inside a room.
- The room should be free from high-level, late arriving reflections
- The room should be free from audible flutter echoes
- The room should have the appropriate RT60 (see note below)
- The room should not undergo a radical change in acoustical parameters when nearly empty up to 80% full (of people)
Considerations
The acoustics of a room determines the performance level of any sound system. The acoustics of a room also determines the performance levle of the piano, organ, choir, soloists, pastor (spoken word) - basically, anything that makes sound.
- Those involved with a new church design or construciton project all want "Good Acoustics" in the new sanctuary, but is usually the least understood, addressed and followed through aspect of the project.
- For the listener, we are concerned with three main aspects: Direct Sound, Reflected Sound, and Noise.
- Direct and Reflected souns can be beneficial or detrimental to good intelligibility, depending on their arrival time and amplitude.
- Reverberation is the audible persistence of sound in a room after the sound source has stopped.
- The rate at which the sound decays in a room is called the reverberation time. A single number cannot provide an accurate assesment of the RT60.
- Nearly every acoustical parameter is a space is affected by noise. Taking care of noise issues is one of the first steps in solving many room acoustical problems.
- Acoustical problems are rarely solved by absorption alone. Sometimes hard surfaces are the answer.
- Wall construction methods and materials affect the acoustics.
- Proper church acoustics starts in the sanctuary - beit is also very important in the foyer, fellowship hall, offices, classrooms, kitchen, restrooms...
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