Often we hear people complain about the acoustics of a room. Complaints such as lack of clarity about the dialogue spoken by the panelists at a conference, the music that sounds frenetic at a rock concert, can not speak quietly at the dining table in a restaurant because the noise level is high, the announcement of the flight times inaudible at an airport.

To the above happens because they do not involve spatial planning acoustic consultants in the early stages of planning the space, resulting in the room that has been designed beautifully become redundant due to failure of acoustics.

One important thing to keep in calculations during the design of space that involves the audience is RT60 value corresponding to the spatial allocation. Definition RT 60 can be read in my previous article: sound-dampening materials in solving echo – RT60 calculation.

In this article I will give some examples of questions that correct acoustical design plan – which gives satisfaction to the audience – as well as the owner of the room.

The first example is when designing a conference room – with a maximum audience of 800 people – 80% of the main activities of the audience in the room was listening to the dialogue. Will require planning RT60 suitable value so that the audience can hear the clarity and dialog clarity without any disturbance in the form of words piled up due to the echoes that occur in the room.

Figure 1. The initial design of a conference room

A good Conference Room requires the right acoustical design. RT 60 is one of the most important aspects in the planning room acoustics in a conference room.

The opposite is designing rooms Hall- concert with an audience of about 2000 people – which in the room for 90% of the major activities audience is listening to acoustic music performances.

An orchestra music show usually uses a microphone and speakers. A sound source in the form of a sexy musical sound stringed instruments, soprano, tenor and so can be heard very well by the audience in 1000 with the help of reflection and diffusion of sound has been designed properly by the designer of the room acoustics.

Figure 2. Sydney Opera House

Sydney opera house with a capacity of 2800 people, is one of the orchestra concert hall and theater with the best acoustics in the world of design, has RT and EDT 2.1 seconds.

Of the two examples above it can be concluded that the main activities of the audience in the room and the sound source is the basis for determining the acoustic design.

What sound did in the listening audience in a room?
Here are the sounds heard by the audience in a space:

1. Dialogue
2. Music
3. The mix of music and dialog
4. A mix of music, dialogue and noise

Based on the list of sounds heard by an audience above – architects and akustisi divide space functions as follows:

1. The conference rooms: a dialogue
2. Cinema: dialogue, noise and music
3. Theater: dialogue and music
4. Concert music pop / rock / jazz Room: music with loudspeakers
5. Orchestra concert Room: acoustic music without loudspeakers
6. Worship Room: dialogue and music
7. The restaurant: dialogue and background music
8. Night Club: music with a relatively high SPL

And based on the room list above, the akustisi world agreed to make RT minimums and maximums for each – each room mentioned above as follows:

1. The conference hall: 0.6 – 1.3 (seconds)
2. Cinema: 0.6 – 1.2 (seconds)
3. Theater: 1 to 1.8 (seconds)
4. Pop concerts room: 1.4 – 2 (seconds)
5. Orchestral concerts room: 1.6 – 3 (seconds)
6. Worship Room: 1.8 – 3.2 (seconds)
7. The diner: a maximum of 1.8 (seconds)
8. Night Club: 0.6 – 1.6 (seconds)

By following RT60 list for each – each function room and combined with acoustic panels correct planning and interior design is good then the owner of the room can maximize the experience the audience in the room.

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