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

Functional acoustics - usability of rooms based on reverberation characteristics. Part 4: Material measures in rooms for musical and technical uses.

A major attention is paid to acoustics only when it comes to concert and opera halls or audio and broadcasting studios. The main emphasis is then, of course, on how the performances are best transmitted (live or reproduced) to the audiences or consumers. The musicians, however, are the ones who primarily suffer from a poor and gain from an adequate acoustic environment in many ways. As employees they are mostly not in a position to refuse to work under conditions overloading their ears and diminishing their performance, while audiences who have paid for their delight may refuse to accept seats poorly irradiated acoustically or flee from ill-designed auditoria. Parts 1 to 3 of this series have discussed some fundamentals of an acoustic design concept which slightly differs from views and standards predominating in this field. In what follows its concrete application and practical consequences are demonstrated by a few typical examples. The first section is focussed on the control of noise developing in smaller enclosures in particular, i.e. on the ergonomic aspects of room acoustics. The second deals with the functional aspects of room acoustics by conditioning larger rooms primarily for musical uses. The examples in section 3 are to demonstrate how one may almost completely eliminate all influences of the room on any audio processes taking place in it - independent of its size and structure. For all construction and restoration projects the main problem is identified in the bass regime. If this is solved by adequate absorption measures, which is no longer too difficult a task, presumably insurmountable conflicts disappear concerning the seemingly contradictory acoustic requirements for different uses of the room.