Audio Engineering Society

Convention Paper 7796

Presented at the 126th Convention 2009 May 710 Munich, Germany
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Acoustic Design of Classrooms

Suthikshn Kumar Mobile Communication and Networking Center of Excellence (MCNC), Dept of ISE, PESIT, Bangalore 560 085, India SUTHIKSHN.KUMAR@PES.EDU

ABSTRACT Acoustic principles when used effectively in class room design can improve the audibility of the professor in dramatic way. The cost effective way to enhance the acoustics serves several purposes: Less speaking effort on the part of the lecturer, Students can easily hear the lecturer more clearly. Improved communication and hence improved learning experience. Several improvements can be done to the class room architecture to enhance the Signal to Noise Ratio, reduce Reverberation and background noise. We propose an innovative way of providing parabolic reflectors near the platform for amplifying the lecturers voice. This paper focuses on the cost effective, energy efficient Acoustic Design of the Classrooms.

1.

INTRODUCTION

The current class room designs in developing countries suffer from poor acoustics. Students are unable to hear the professor clearly and hence miss some important concepts while learning in the classroom. The students find it difficult to concentrate resulting in increased stress levels and decreased learning rate. The lecturer finds it difficult to communicate ideas and also suffers strain due to increased effort in speaking loudly in the class room. There are several papers and reports published on classroom acoustics[1, 2, 4, 5]. Several standards have been proposed such as ANSI S 12.60-2002[3] which set guidelines for class room design for better acoustics.

Most of the earlier publications focus on Acoustic design of classrooms without regard to the cost or use of external energy source. While in developing Countries, we can observe that cost and availability of materials play a significant role as also the availability of uninterrupted source of power. Design Improvements which are cost effective and do not consume any external energy are proposed in this paper. Simple improvements can dramatically enhance the listening experience of the students. The improvements can be structural, material, design oriented etc. The improvements help in dealing with external noise minimization, amplifying the lecturers speech, reducing the reverberation and reflections etc.

Suthikshn Kumar This paper is organized as follows: In the next section, we discuss on the speech Intelligibility with various contributing factors such as Background noise, Signal to noise ratio and Reverberation Time. In section 3, we present the class room design with improvement suggestions for better acoustics. In section 4, we present the summary and conclusions. 2. SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY

Acoustic Design of Classrooms dependent on its size, and the amount of absorption material present[14] with the equation: RTD

V is the volume of the room and A specifies the total sound absorption. 2.3. Background Noise

V where A

Most of the classroom activities are based on voice communication. One can observe the teacher speaking for most of the time and occasional discussions involving students. This necessitates the better speech intelligibility(SI). SI is a measure which indicates the audibility and clarity of speech inside the classroom. Not all students in the class can make out the teachers speech with the same clarity. Students are located at different distances from the speaker. Speech Intelligibility may vary depending on several parameters: x x x x Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) Reverbation Time ( RT) Background Noise Class room Architecture

Background noise impacts the speech Intelligibility. Higher levels of noise make it difficult for the student to listen to the lecturer. Speech recognition becomes difficult with words and sentences being missed out. This results in reduced learning rate in the class room. Also the lecturer needs to raise his/her voice to counter the higher noise level. This results in increased strain on the speaker. There are several sources of background noise: x x Noise produced within the classroom Noise from outside

2.1.

Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)

Student chatter, Air Conditioner noise, electric fan noise etc are the major source of noise generated from within the classroom. Student chatter can be sometimes controlled by the teacher. Student chatter can lead to reduced Signal to noise ratio and results in decreased rate of learning. This is as the lecturer now has to spend more time on class control. Electrical Equipment noise may be reduced by selecting good equipment and proper maintenance. Furniture made of steel may sometimes produce creeky noise whenever students move them. A better choice may be the wooden furnitures. Noise from outside the classroom such as traffic, aircraft, construction, chatter, etc can significantly contribute to the decreased speech intelligibility. Classrooms need to be further away from high traffic roads, airports, etc. Also, the classrooms need to be shielded from outside noise. Sound from activities in neighboring classrooms can contribute as noise. 2.4. Class Room Architecture

Signal to noise ratio determines the speech intelligibility. It is desirable to have higher SNR. However, in the presence of high level background noise, the speaker has to strain his/her vocal chords in order to speak loudly. The speaker may be aided by an amplifier. Quieter class rooms offer higher SNR with better speech intelligibility. 2.2. Reverberation Time (RT)

Excess Reverberation contributes to decreased speech intelligibility. A small reverberation is desirable as it reinforces speech. However, Reverberation Time(RT) plays an important role with optimum values in the range of 0.4 to 0.6 s[4]. Through extensive studies of the acoustic properties of room, Sabine has shown that reverberation characteristics of an enclosure is

The class room architecture with dimensions of width, depth, height and volume plays an important role in speech intelligibility. The windows and ventilators of the classroom are key to reducing the background noise. Hard surfaces such as walls, ceilings, floors and furnitures can reflect the sound waves and thus interfere in the speech perceptibility.

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Suthikshn Kumar 2.5. ANSI Standard S12.60

Acoustic Design of Classrooms Reducing the external noise: The airtight windows with double panels and good doors can substantially filter out the external noise. Air tight sealants can be used to cover any openings in the windows. Gardens with good number of plants, shrubs and trees near the classroom can significantly filter out the traffic, aircraft and other noise. Noise barriers or Sound walls can be installed in case the background noise from the traffic or aircraft is too high[20]. Jute or clothe based window curtains can absorb the sound and external noise. Jute is nowadays a popular inexpensive choice and has good acoustic absorption properties[15]. Venetian blinds also serves good purpose in filtering light and also reducing the transmission of external noise. Volume: The classroom volume plays an important role with its width, depth, height being important parameters in various factors such as SNR and RT. The volume of the classroom can be significantly reduced by using false ceilings with acoustic tiles. Gallery seating with width being larger than depth improves speech intelligibility. Closer seating of the students to the stage allows them to hear much more clearly. 3.1. Sound Absorption Materials

ANSI Standard S12.60 for Classroom Acoustics[3] prescribes limits of RT and background noise as they affect speech intelligibility. It sets maximum permissible levels on each. The standard prescribes the maximum acceptable RT in unoccupied but furnished classrooms with volumes up to 10,000 cubic feet to 0.6 seconds, and 0.7 seconds for classrooms between 10,000 and 20,000 cubic feet. The maximum acceptable background noise allowed by the ANSI S12.60 in these classrooms is 35 decibels (dBA). These acoustical performance requirements apply to the design and construction of new classrooms of small-to-moderate size accommodating 50-200 students. 3. CLASS ROOM DESIGN

Sound Proofing: Soundproofing is done for two different reasons: noise reduction and noise absorption[7]. Noise reduction reduces the passage of sound waves through the use of distance and objects in the sound path. Noise absorption takes effect by transforming the sound wave. Noise absorption involves suppressing echoes, reverberation, resonance and reflection. The damping characteristics of the materials it is made out of are important in noise absorption. Ceiling : For classrooms with ceiling heights of approximately 10 feet, the sound-absorbing material for the ceiling is recommended. This is very cost effective simple solution. There are acoustical ceiling panels from several manufacturers that have a Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) rating better than 0.70. Walls : Acoustical wall treatments usually consist of 3/4" to 1" thick mineral fiber or fibreglass backer board with a vinyl or fabric covering or Jute boards. Some cost effective ways are to use furnishings such as bookshelves. These are distributed around the room to diffuse sound reflections, to reduce echoes. Flooring: Carpeting may also help reduce reverberation. Most commercial grade carpeting is generally a poor absorber of Sound (NRC of 0.25 or lower). However, carpeting can help reduce background noise caused by the sound of people walking, and desk and chair shuffling.

Choice of good materials for classroom help in reducing reverberation. The important characteristics ie, absorptivity varies from materials to materials. While glass, concerete wall, brickwalls etc have least absorptivity, porous materials such as acoustic tiles, carpets, Jute, draperies, acoustic plasters, are good at sound absorption. However, absorptivity of such materials is a strong function of frequencies. The absorptivity is relatively small at low frequencies and increases with thickness of the materials. Bass Traps are acoustic absorbers which have the ability to absorb low frequency sound[16]. Bass traps are common tools used in architectural acoustics. Bass traps are particularly useful in the acoustic treatment of classrooms built to provide a critical listening environment. Bass traps provide a means to control room reverberations at low frequencies. There are two types of bass traps: resonating absorbers and porous absorbers. Porous absorbers tend to absorb wide range of frequencies. These broadband porous Bass traps can be mounted near the walls or the corners of the classroom for best effect.

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Suthikshn Kumar 3.2. Amplifying the lecturers voice

Acoustic Design of Classrooms metallic parabolic dish near the board. This parabolic dish can be foldable if required for portability. The parabolic dish will concentrate the speech energy and transmit it even to nooks and corners of the classroom. The parabolic dish does not require any electrical energy and also is inexpensive to fabricate. A teacher when speaking uses a large parabolic dish in the background. The Parabolic dish effectively reflects all the sound incident on it and directs the speech energy evenly into the classroom. Even if the teacher is whispering, the whispers can be heard over a long distance. Even the back benchers will have no difficulty listening to the lecturer. The diagram( Fig 1) shows the concept in action. The gain of the Parabolic dish can be stated as :

With a speakers voice being omni directional, it gets attenuated at a fast rate which is proportional to the square of the distance. However, sound can be focused like light, but are dealing with longer wavelengths. This effect is observed in some domed buildings such as the Capitol in Washington, St Paul's Cathedral in London, Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur, India. The Gol Gumbaz structure consists of a massive square chamber measuring nearly 50 m on each side and covered by a huge dome 37.9 m in diameter making it the second largest pre-modern dome in the entire world[19]. The Dome is also the second largest one in the world which is unsupported by any pillars. The acoustics of the enclosed place make it a whispering gallery where even the smallest sound is heard across the other side of the Gumbaz. A circular balcony is constructed on the periphery of the dome where visitors can witness the astounding whispering gallery. Anything whispered from one corner of the gallery can be heard clearly on the diagonally opposite side. However, the problem with this domed structure is the echoes. Parabolic Reflectors serve the same purpose as domes in focussing and amplifying speakers voice. Acoustic Mirrors based on parabolic reflectors have been used during the World War II[21]. These are used to amplify and detect the noise of the enemy aircraft and are in parabolic shape with diameters upto 4.5 meters. In some of the science museums, we find Listening Vessels, where two large parabolic reflectors set as far as 50 feet apart. These act as mirrors to reflect sound from one to the other. Two people sit near the focal point for each reflector, so that the sound coming from each reflector is focused at this point. This allows each visitor to clearly hear the others voice, even at a whisper in spite of the distance separating the vessels. Providing parabolic reflectors near the platform for amplifying the lecturer voice can be simple way of improving SNR. Parabolic reflectors can be fabricated into the wall closest to the stage. The advantages of the parabolic reflectors are that they do not require external energy source. Students in any bench can easily hear the professor clearly. Speech intelligibility improves with cost effective, low maintenance reflectors. Also it puts less strain on the professor while speaking and enhances the learning experience. Acoustic properties of parabolic reflectors have been extensively studied[18]. Parabolic dish has been used for several application in signal amplification for antennas, microphones etc. We propose to use a large

shows that the parabolic reflector is very effective at higher frequencies. The parabolic reflector may be made of aluminum or fiberglass, and can have diameter in the range of 1-2 meters with focal length 20-30 cm.

SD where D is the diameter of the dish and G K O K is the dish efficiency determined by properties of the dish material, O is the wavelength[18]. This equation

Figure 1: Parabolic Dish Reflector 4. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

In this paper, we have discussed the cost effective, energy efficient Acoustic Design of classroom. The proposed designs are well suited for classrooms in developing countries. We have reviewed various factors

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Suthikshn Kumar which contribute to speech intelligibility such as SNR, RT, Background Noise, Classroom Architecture. We presented the Acoustic design of the classroom and proposed various cost effective materials to be used for walls, ceiling, flooring. We proposed structures and mechanisms to enhance the audibility of the speaker and improve the SNR. It is advisable to reduce the reverberations by having acoustic absorption materials inside the classroom. These may be low density wooden or jute wall hangings, window curtains, floor and roof coverings. Use of parabolic reflectors for focusing speech is an inexpensive proposition. Foldable parabolic metallic reflectors can be fabricated and used in the classrooms on need basis. The general benefits of Acoustically designed classrooms for students are : Improved learning, better Classroom participation, improved concentration and attention, flexible seating options, better speech comprehension, listening skills and recognition. For the teachers and instructors we can observe good benefits such as: Reduction in vocal strain and voice fatigue, improvement in teaching, better classroom control and communication. 5. REFERENCES

Acoustic Design of Classrooms Hearing Services in Schools, Vol 31, Oct 2000, pp. 362-370. [6] Suthikshn Kumar, Acoustic Personalization of Mobile Phones, AES 114th Convention, Amsterdam, NL. [7] Sound Proofing wikipedia reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundproofing [8] Acoustic Quieting : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_quieting [9] Room Acoustics: Useful information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_acoustics [10] R.Hartley, R. Greene, P. Lyngdorf and A. Noxon, Room Acoustics: Audios Final Frontier, Absolute Sound Magazine, Oct/Nov 2004. [11] A. Noxon, Sound Fusion and The Acoustics Presence Effect, 89th AES Convention, Los Angeles, Sep 21-25, 1990. [12] Emory College Classroom Design Guide, April 2008. [13] Armstrong Systems, Classroom Acoustics: Enhancing Learning environment through better speech Intelligibility, CS-3711-206, 2006. [14] L.E. Kinsler, A. R. Frey, A. B. Coppens and J.V. Sanders, Fundamentals of Acoustics, Third Editions, John Wiley and Sons, 1982. [15] Jute Fibre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jute_fiber [16] Development of Sound Proofing Composite Materials using Jute Products, Detailed Project report, IIT Kharagpur, Sept 2007. [17] Bass Traps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_trap [18] R.S. Little, Acoustic Properties of Parabolic Refelctors, Bio-Acoustics Bulletin, 4(1):1-3, 1964. [19] Gol Gumbaz of Bijapur, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol_Gumbaz India:

[1] Class Room Acoustics Booklet, Technical Committee on Architectural Acoustics, Acoustics Society of America, August 2000. [2] Bradley, J. (2007). Classroom acoustics to support student learning. Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy Development (pp. 1-7). London, ON: Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network. [3] American National Standards Institute (2002). Acoustical performance criteria, design requirements, and guidelines for schools. Retrieved March 1, 2007, from http://asastore.aip.org/ [4] N. Subramanian and A. Ramachandraiah, Speech Intelligibility Issues in Classroom Acoustics A Review, Vol 87, Oct 2006, IE(I) Journal, pp 2933. [5] C.C. Crandell and J.J. Smaldino, Classroom Acoustics for Children with Normal Hearing and with Hearing Impairement, Language, Speech and

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Suthikshn Kumar [20] Noise Barrier or Sound http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_wall Wall:

Acoustic Design of Classrooms

[21] Acoustic Mirrors used during World War II: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_mirrors

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