AES Section Meeting Reports

Melbourne - October 8, 2012

Rod enlightens the meeting on the tricky subject of acoustics

Meeting Topic: Introduction to Architectural Acoustics

Moderator Name: Graham Haynes

Speaker Name: Dr Rodney Staples

Other business or activities at the meeting: The meeting was also advise of the death of prominent engineer Neville Thiele in Sydney the previous week. Neville was known to many present, and the meeting expressed condolences to his family, and the Section will be represented at his funeral by committee member and friend Graeme Huon.

Meeting Location: Swinburne University

Summary

Rodney presented a non-mathematical, undergraduate-level presentation — designed to provide the listener with a basic overview of the topic.

The Section has two follow-up meetings planned on acoustics topics - studio design with designer Peter Brown in November, and concert hall renovation (Hamer Hall) with Peter Exton of Marshall Day Acoustics early next year.
This session was designed as a basic primer to provide a better understanding of the topic and add to the appreciation of the future presentations.

Rod covered the subject fully in a highly descriptive and non-mathematical manner.

Among the topics discussed were:
- Room shape/size - optimum dimensions and resonances and room modes
- Reflections - sound mirrors, ray-tracing
- Echo creation and control mechanisms and standing waves.
- Reverberation time(RT60), early reflections and optimum RT60
- Diffusion and Quadratic Residue Diffusers (Schroeder)
- Absorbers - broadband and resonant
- Noise Control - Sound Transmission Loss and Noise Criteria, and construction techniques to maximise attenuation
- Air conditioning - special measures required to minimise sound leakage

He also interspersed some design examples from concert halls and studios to illustrate points throughout the talk.

Rodney did an excellent job in fitting a prodigious amount of material into a two hour presentation - one which presented the basics of this fascinating mix of science and art in a most lucid manner.

Written By: Peter Smerdon

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