Everyone has their opinions; it’s too loud, it’s too quiet, it’s too live, it’s too dead, this place has perfect acoustics, what we need is a new system, etc. So what is the best temperature for your room acoustically?
Anything that happens in a service, whether it is the spoken word, special video presentation, high-energy worship or quiet worship, has to operate within the physical parameters of he room. The room will always “color” and have an impact on the overall “feel” of the sound. It’s important to realize that a room’s acoustics are either increasing or decreasing intelligibility (what is actually heard) of the sound. There are several factors that cause most of the acoustical problems in a room, but the two most important are echoes/ reflections and excessive reverberation.
An echo is a distinct reflection of sound, arriving at the listener after the direct sound, There are several different types of echoes and reflections (e.g. flutter echo between two parallel surfaces, slap echo off back all, focused echo from a concave curved wall area). Reflections and echoes can be problematic in smaller rooms, but the larger the room, the longer sound travels, and the more negatively it can impact the listening experience.
Reverberation can easily be defined as the amount of time it takes for sound energy to dissipate (bouncing around a room before being absorbed or running out of steam), Reverberation is measured by the time it takes sound to decay 60dB. This is referred to as the decay time of a room or the RT-60. These tests can be professionally done to measure each frequency from low to high, providing information on how long the room is reverberating at each frequency (in some cases an overall RT average can be very helpful). Reverberation time is a function of the volume of the room and the surface areas in the room. The larger the facility, the longer its starting reverberation time will be.
