SPATIAL DECOMPOSITION AND BEAMFORMING FOR PREDICTING 3D ROOM ACOUSTICS IN CONCERT HALLS

Abstract

Our work involved the development and implementation of a measurement system to analyze room acoustics. Existing methods define the characteristics of a room by analyzing the impulse responses within the room in the temporal domain. A swept sine signal and an omni-microphone are typically used to generate the impulse response that is used to measure standardized acoustic parameters [1, 2]. This method has the advantage of calculating the acoustic parameters of the room with high stability. In contrast, neither directional nor spatial information, which is required for investigating the sound paths and reflection surfaces in a room, is well defined. The spatial distribution of sound has to be considered in room acoustical design with regard to auditory perception [3]. Previous studies have proposed methods for spatial analysis in which multiple microphone arrays such as spherical, 6-channel, and B-format microphones are used [4-7], whereas visualization methods, which involve multi-dimensional data, remain problematic because of the complexity of the data. Although some methods for visualization were previously suggested [4-7], it is still need to be developed.