Wallace Clement Sabine
REVERBERATION (1868-1919)
REVERBERATION
Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a
particular space after the original sound is removed.
A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a
sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a
large number of echoes to build up and then slowly
decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air.
This is most noticeable when the sound source
stops but the reflections continue, decreasing in
amplitude, until they can no longer be heard.
REVERBERATION
TOPICS
REVERBERATION TIME SABINES
FORMULA ALONG WITH THE LIMITATION
AND PREREQUISITES.
ACOUSTICAL DESING MEASURES FOR
LIVE ACOUSTICAL ENVIRONMENT IN
ENCLOSURE USED FOR VARIOUS PUPOSES
ACOUSTICAL ENVIRONMENT IN ENCLOSURE
USED FOR VARIOUS PUPOSES
1. CLASSROOMS
2. LECTURE HALL
3. AUDITORIUM
4. SEMINAR HALLS
5. CONFERENCE ROOMS
6. MEETING ROOMS
7. THEATRES
8. MUSIC CONCERT HALL
9. OPERA HOUSES
10. DANCE HALL
11. OPEN AIR THEATRES
12. MOVIE THEATRES
13. MEDITATION CENTRES
14. GROUP PRAYER HALL
SABIN AS UNIT OF SOUND ABSORPTION
The unit of sound absorption is square meter, referring to the area of
open window.
This unit stems from the fact that sound energy travelling toward an
open window in a room will not be reflected at all, but completely
disappear in the open air outside.
The effect would be the same if the open window would be replaced
with 100 % absorbing material of the same dimensions.
Therefore, 1 square meter of 100 % absorbing material has an
absorption of 1 square meter of open window.
In honor of W.C. Sabine, the unit of absorption is also named sabin or
metric sabin.
However, these units are used not very often.
SABINE'S REVERBERATION FORMULA
Wallace Clement Sabine was a pioneer in architectural acoustics.
A century ago he started experiments in the Fogg lecture room at Harvard, to
investigate the impact of absorption on the reverberation time.
It was on the 29th of October 1898 that he discovered the type of relation
between these quantities. Sabine derived an expression for the duration T of the
residual sound to decay below the audible intensity, starting from a 1,000,000
times higher initial intensity:
T = 0.161 V/A
Where,
V is the room volume in cubic meters, and
A is the total absorption in square meters.
Sabine's reverberation formula has been applied successfully for many years to
determine material absorption coefficients by means of reverberation rooms.
• It is now recognized that the most important
property of a room is its reverberation time.
• Surfaces absorb sound so the echoes get weaker
and weaker.
• The reverberation time depends on the size of the
room and the way the surfaces absorb sound.
• Larger rooms have longer reverberation times.
• More absorptive rooms have shorter reverberation
times.
• It is now recognized that the most important
property of a room is its reverberation time.
• Surfaces absorb sound so the echoes get
weaker and weaker.
• The reverberation time depends on the size of
the room and the way the surfaces absorb
sound.
• Larger rooms have longer reverberation times.
• More absorptive rooms have shorter
reverberation times.
REVERBERATION TIME FOR DIFFERENT PLACES
Sr. no. Place Purpose RT Suggested
1 Court rooms, halls for Speech 0.75 to 1 sec
lectures, debates and
conferences
2 Drama theater Dialogue by 1 to 1.25 sec
actors and music
3 Cinema Theater Films 1 sec
4 School and colleges Multipurpose 1.25 sec
5 Orchestra and large theaters Songs and 1.25 to 2 sec
instruments
6 Temple and churches Religious(chorus) 2.5 to 4 sec
• Room acoustic recommendations in standards and guidelines are very much about
reverberation times.
• The reverberation time as an overall descriptor of room acoustical conditions is
not suitable in all types of rooms.
• It is more or less restricted to reverberant rooms (Sabine room) where the diffuse
conditions are prevailed during the decay process.
• In other room types like ordinary room with acoustical ceiling treatment or open-
plan spaces supplementary measures are needed that better reveal the acoustical
conditions and the subjective perceived acoustics.
• This room is characterized by low absorption and high diffusion, like the
reverberation chambers in acoustic laboratories. In these rooms:
•Reverberation time is given by the sound absorption (Sabine formula)
•Sound pressure level can be calculated from the reverberation time knowing the
sound power from the source
•Negligible influence
Room with acoustic ceiling
•The reverberant room is quit rare in practice. A more common type of room is the
room with acoustic ceiling. In these rooms:
•There is no clear relation between reverberation time and sound pressure level
•Acoustical treatment given the same reverberation time can have different influence
on the steady-state sound pressure level
•Non-absorbent sound scattering objects have large influence on reverberation time
but not on sound pressure level
•Open-plan spaces
•Room with extended forms such as open-plan offices and corridors constitute
another group. Typically for these rooms are:
•Room acoustical descriptors like reverberation time, STI and others varies a lot over
distance
•Ordinary room acoustic descriptors are not well suited as “global” parameters
characterizing the acoustical conditions in open-plan spaces
•Measures related to the propagation of sound are more suitable for these types of
rooms