Funktionelle Akustik - Die Nachhall-Charakteristik des Raumes als Basis für seine Nutzbarkeit

Functional acoustics — useability of rooms based on reverberation characteristics. Part 3: An alternative approach.

Parts 1 and 2 of this treatise have concentrated on the reverberation time which is considered as the most important acoustic parameter among all serious acousticians. The author is convinced that — provided that it carries the right frequency characteristic — it forms the basis for the functional conditioning of any arbitrary enclosure. Only after having cleared the room from its "bass rumble and hum" can computer simulations and auralizations [1], which are employed preferably, of course, at the medium frequencies, give valuable hints upon the expected room quality. In order to correlate the preference put forward herein with other relevant criteria, its effect on the latter shall also, though only briefly, be now discussed. It should, however, be said beforehand that the favoured reverberation characteristic avoiding an increase, even better: enabling a decrease towards the low frequencies, does in no way complicate, instead even facilitate the tasks of an acoustician with respect to the manifold additional demands of modern architectures. In what follows a broad bow is drawn from Greek amphitheatres and Roman odeia, Chinese courtyard theatres and English Shakespearean globes to present soccer stadiums. In part 4 will then be presented — apart from a few exemplary restoration projects — the new design of a multipurpose theatre with a classical (cylindrical) gross structure of the auditorium, as demonstrations of this room-acoustical philosophy even under often adverse boundary conditions. In part 5 it will finally be shown that the same concept has not only functionally but also ergonomically proven to be of use in any enclosures for intense verbal communications.