Acoustic Control Principles
Acoustic Control Principles when governed by environments with gravity. It has long been established in various different environments that the control of the acoustic state is a necessity in order to create balance. In environments such as theaters, cinemas, auditoriums, music rooms, and reference-quality music listening rooms, it is desirable to remove or reduce considerable echo and reverberations and to isolate reflection points that generate negative harmony. Whereas speech and singing rooms require acoustic environments that create harmonious reverberations so that the user's voice gains depth and smooth definition.
Our team roster includes
Industrial environments such as factory spaces, engine rooms, pump rooms, and the like require heavy suppression of echo and reverberation. In fact, they require a dead room characteristic and beyond, where absorption results in the reduction of dB, which is of paramount importance. However, when materials are used to reduce dB levels within a space, it is characterized as sound absorption, which falls under one of the four fundamental principles of noise control.
Most Acoustic Consultants, Acoustic Engineers and Noise Control Specialists but not all would say there are 3 different altering factors for sound waves in terms of the way that noise is controlled using materials within an environment. Absorption, Reflection and Diffusion. However, we at Advanced Acoustics would differ to that.
There are in fact 4 different contributing factors that change the way sound is affected by contact with surfaces. These are Acoustic Absorption, Acoustic Reflection, Acoustic Diffusion, and Acoustic Refraction. It should be noted that we do not include Active Noise Control or Acoustic Quieting as they do not make use of material surfaces and their usage does not result in the absorption of sound to reach a state of euphony.
When sound is propagated and then the wave transmits through the air we refer to this as airborne noise in environments such as rooms. The sound waves transmit through the air until the energy reaches and strikes a surface or barrier. We observe four events or a combination of all or either.
- Acoustic Absorption - (Absorbing Sound) - The sound energy is attenuated
- Acoustic Diffusion - (Diffusing Sound) - The sound is distributed more or less uniformly (diffusion)
- Acoustic Reflection - (Reflecting of Sound) - The sound is geometrically re-directed (reflection)
- Acoustic Refraction - (Refracting of Sound) - The sound bends or curves and is displaced by the surface that it is in contact with.
The diagrams above show the relationship within a room and with only a narrow spread sound source. In reality, the distribution of sound from the source is much more complicated. Therefore, acoustic calculations are required to determine the best possible design for the Acoustic Control in any given scenario.
Some of the materials that can be used are as below
