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Consulting Details

Audio Design

Recommendations on equipment, materials, and installation procedures for sound reinforcement, recording, playback, and hearing impaired systems.

Our responsibility as your advocate is to explain to you what your are compromising if you decide to delete certain pieces of equipment. Additionally we must be certain not to compromise the key components of the system. If any changes are necessary we will make changes or deletions that can be added at a later date.

Sound System Design

We utilize EASE (Enhanced Acoustical Simulator for Engineers) software for room modeling purposes. As with any software package, the data presented is only as good as the initial design. The software does not perform the design process; rather it displays the expected results of the proposed design. Simply put, the program still requires input from an experienced sound system designer.

The sample on the right is a basic drawing of a church. Room construction within the software package is the first step in the design process. Physical measurements of the room are transferred into the program point by point until the room is complete.

Direct Sound Pressure Level

We also use EASE to map the coverage area of the speaker or speakers we select. The next sample is a three-dimensional look at the coverage within a room. This is used to ensure even coverage over the seating area.

The various colors represent the Direct Sound Pressure Level
(Direct SPL) of the system.

System intelligibility

Another important feature of EASE is its ability to predict the intelligibility of the system. We are able to analyze the intelligibility by looking at the Articulation Loss of Consonants. (% Alcons) Here in the U.S. the frequency for speech intelligibility is 2000Hz. Quite simply, the lower the percentage the more intelligible the system. This is demonstrated in the following example.

In this example, the area represented is the seating area from the first example. Although there are still additional tools available within EASE, these examples hopefully provide an overview of the capabilities of EASE and its importance in verifying the sound system design.

Rack and Block Diagrams using STARDRAW Audio

STARDRAW AUDIO: Stardraw Audio is a computer software package that allows the client to see the sound system before it is purchased or installed. It allows the client to see the block diagram of the system as well as the completed “as built” drawings.

BLOCK DIAGRAM OF A PROPOSED SYSTEM

In addition high detail rack layouts can be displayed.

PROPOSED RACK LAYOUT RACK LAYOUT

Custom panel designs can also be created and shown to the client
before any custom fabrication is undertaken.

CUSTOM PANEL

Smaart Live

Smaart Live is a dual channel FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) based audio measurement software package utilized for real-time sound system measurement, optimization and control. The capabilities of this software package include...

SPECTRUM: This is a real time signal analysis with multiple, simultaneously viewable, measurement modes. These include a two channel RTA. a single channel spectrograph and a Sound Pressure Level (SPL) measurement.

SPECTRUM MODE SHOWING SIMULTANEOUS VIEW OF TWO CHANNEL RTA IN BOTTOM WINDOW AND SPECTROGRAPH IN TOP WINDOW

TRANSFER FUNCTION: This is a dual channel frequency response measurement using any test signal which makes it possible to monitor a system’s behavior during a performance or system set up, using the actual program material as the test signal.

TRANSFER FUNCTION MODE SHOWING FREQUENCY RESPONSE MEASUREMENTS WITH LIVE PHASE RESPONSE (YELLOW TRACE) IN THE TOP WINDOW AND MAGNITUDE RESPONSE (YELLOW TRACE) AND COHERENCE TRACE (RED TRACE) IN THE BOTTOM WINDOW. THE CALCULATED EQ MAGNITUDE RESPONSE TRACE (ORANGE TRACE) AND FILTER LOCATIONS ARE ALSO DISPLAYED IN THE LOWER WINDOW FOR AN EXTERNALLY CONTROLLED DEVICE.

IMPULSE RESPONSE: Precise delay time and acoustic response measure capability. What this really means is that measurements of arrival times can be made with up to 0.002 millisecond resolution. This information is critical for the optimal alignment of sound systems and subsystems.

IMPULSE RESPONSE MEASUREMENT SHOWN WITH LINE (WHITE) DRAWN TO CALCULATE APPROXIMATE BROADBAND RT FROM DECAY SLOPE