Relationships between Subjective and Objective Acoustical Measures in Churches (original) (raw)
Related papers
The new guidelines of the Catholic Church are in line with the guidelines adopted by Protestant churches since the Reformation, unifying appreciation for the liturgical practices of preaching and congregational singing. These guidelines require that the room, in this case the church, provides appropriate acoustic characteristics, which can be characterized by acoustic descriptors such as Reverberation Time (RT), Clarity (C80) and Definition (D50). In this article, we analyzed the acoustic quality of a protestant church whose design tried to follow these guidelines. Our findings revealed the poor quality of the acoustic environment in terms of both speech intelligi-bility and music. These findings emphasized the need to adopt not only Reverberation Time but also other acoustic descriptors such as Clarity and Definition in church design.
Analysis of subjective acoustic measures and speech intelligibility in Portuguese churches
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1996
This study reports on subjective acoustical field measurements made in a survey of 36 Catholic churches in Portugal built in the last 14 centuries. The same group of college students were asked to judge the quality of speech and music at all the churches. Two sets of listeners in each church evaluated live music performance (cello and oboe) at two similar locations in each of the rooms using a seven-point semantic differential rating scale. An acoustical evaluation sheet was used to measure listeners overall impression of room acoustics qualities, and each of the factors that can contribute to that perception as loudness, reverberance, intimacy, envelopment, directionality, balance, clarity, echoes and background noise. Speech intelligibility tests were also given to the same group in each church. One-hundred-word lists were used in live speech tests using a theater college student as speaker. The results are graphed and analyzed by comparisons. Variations of subjective and speech intelligibility qualities were identified among the different churches and within each of the churches as well. The subjective qualities that contributed to overall acoustical impression were also identified.
A Double Synthetic Index to Evaluate the Acoustics of Churches
ARCHIVES OF ACOUSTICS
Several authors have proposed synthetic indices to synthesize the acoustics of a space, especially of concert halls. Meanwhile, a few studies have focused on the acoustics of religious spaces. The peculiarities of these last ones have shown distinctive characteristics. The increasing interest for the acoustics of worship spaces justifies the formulation of indices to synthesize the results of acoustic studies in these buildings too. This paper proposes a double synthetic index to evaluate the acoustics of a church. The index is obtained combining the average values of seven parameters generally considered in studies of architectural acoustics. The differences between requirements for music and speech in churches suggest to consider different optimal values of the selected parameters for different kinds of sound. A double synthetic index has been defined to synthesize the acoustical properties related to the music and to the speech separately. The validity of this double index is then assessed, comparing its values with subjective preferences captured through listening tests. The index, which is proposed and validated in this paper, aims to be an instrument to show synthetically the acoustical characteristics of a church to people with low knowledge in acoustics.
Guidelines for acoustical measurements in churches
Applied Acoustics, 2009
The acoustics of churches is a cultural heritage to be preserved as carefully as the artistic and architectural aspects of this particular category of buildings. The acoustic characteristics of an environment could be measured according to different techniques varying from the numerical quantification, by means of acoustical parameters, to the recording of the binaural or ambisonic impulse responses of several combinations of source-receiver locations. The complexity of this kind of buildings can lead different researchers to choose dissimilar source-receiver arrangements, that yield incomparable results. To prevent different approaches to the problem and to assist in obtaining comparable data, the results of experimental measurements deriving from previous acoustical surveys are statistically analysed in order to better understand the spatial variation of acoustical parameters leading to the definition of a set of guidelines to standardize the choice of sources and receivers locations. In addition, suitable hardware combinations depending on the purpose of the measurement are finally suggested.
A Study of the Effects of Architectural Forms on Sound Quality in Church Buildings
Nigerian Journal of Environmental Sciences and Technology, 2017
Acoustics in churches design is concerned with the impact of sound on both the worshippers and the building as well. The aim of this study is to investigate sound audibility and quality with the use of acoustic materials and most appropriate architectural form. Qualitative and case study approach were adopted, the qualitative method involves the collection of narrative data in a natural setting, with a view to gaining insight. While the case study involved an intensive study of specific phenomena through investigations. These methods were chosen due to the nature of this research, personal observation and interviews were extensively carried out. Research shows that, architectural forms are special vaccines necessary to achieve quality of sound in churches and large halls in general.
2008
The Acoustic Characterization of Worship Ambience, a method used in Old Goa's Capela do Monte (a significant Catholic church of Goa, a former Portuguese colony in India), introduces a new concept of describing the worship mood through evaluation of architectural acoustics results. Three acoustically constituted worship parameters named Sacred Factor (SaF), Intelligibility Factor (InF) and Silence Factor (SiF) are presented in this study. The constituent subjective acoustic measures were analyzed and averaged in four listener zones within the church. The objective acoustic parameters RASTI, RT, EDT, D50, C80, TS, ITDG, G, and Leq were measured. All acoustic parameters were normalized using the data of previous acoustic measurements in Portuguese Churches. SaF was found to relate with Initial Time Delay Gap (ITDG) (R = 0.99) with a "F-Statistic" probability (p < 0.01). InF related with D50 and EDT (R = 0.99) (p = 0.07) and with subjective Directionality (R = 0.95) (p ...
Acta Acustica united with …, 2011
The study of rooms devoted to sound transmission has become adiscipline in which all the fundamentals areas of current scientificr esearch in acoustics converge. To demonstrate howt his convergence arises in this work, we present acomplete and detailed acoustics study of the Sant Jaume Basilica in Algemesí (Valencia, Spain), a building which has been declared as ite of cultural interest. Starting from this overall perspective,t he first part of this paper describes the features of the room studied (chosen for its complexity), the usual parameters for the analysis of room acoustics, and twomeasurement methodologies and twosimulating methods widely used by the scientificc ommunity.B ased on the theoretical results (obtained from modelling)a nd measurements following the recommendations of ISO 3382 Standard [1], we study the errors in 'just noticeable differences' in acoustic parameters that al istener may perceive.T he aim of the study is to highlight the drawbacks and successes of the procedures used. From the perspective of comparing the results, the purpose of this study is not to assess the experimental procedures themselves or the modelling systems, butr ather to demonstrate, using the four possible measurement-calculation combinations, whether the differences obtained between the theoretical values and experimental values are within areasonable range of acceptability.
Room acoustics experimental study: characterization of the sound quality in a new built church
2009
Abstract This paper is devoted to the study of the sound propagation in the hall of a new built church, by means of acoustical sound level acquisition and analysis. In particular we focus on the evaluation of the reverberation time. That represents one of the principal parameter that must be optimized in order to improve the people hearing sensation. A correction of the reverberation time can be performed by modifying the reflection surfaces of walls, floor and roof.
Evaluation of Acoustic Similarities in Two Italian Churches Honored to S. Dominic
Applied Sciences
This paper compares two acoustical projects, applied to the S. Dominic church of Foligno and Imola, which are subject to a permanent and temporary conversion respectively, to places dedicated for listening to live music. Sets of measurements have been undertaken before the acoustical treatments in order to calibrate the digital model; in Foligno, the measurements have also been performed after the installation of the acoustical features, to check if the aims have been achieved. Between the proposed acoustical projects, only one has been realized in Foligno, with the artistic activity still running inside the auditorium. The challenge to adjust the acoustics of reverberant rooms like churches to host musical venues has been achieved with a good quality of sound perception. In particular, in S. Dominic church of Foligno, the goal has been hit after many digital simulations that calibrated the redirection of the sound towards the sitting areas.