What is Reverberation? Hear For Yourself!

Think of how a musician sounds while performing at a huge stadium.

Or imagine the cacophony of traffic exiting a parking garage after a local football team’s game.

Both of those are excellent examples of reverberant sound. You aren’t just hearing the sound from the source; you’re also hearing it bounce off hard, reflective surfaces. Reverberant sound reaches a given location in a space only after being reflected from another surface within that space.

From an acoustical perspective, reverberation can be incredibly useful.

The inverse square law dictates that the sound energy twice as far from the source is spread over four times the area. Auditoriums are typically large structures, and patrons seated in the back of the theater want to hear the performer just as much as patrons seated right next to the orchestra. By utilizing properly-tuned reflectors, diffusers, and optimally-placed absorbers, the listening experience can remain consistent regardless of how much a guest spent on their seat.

A first-order reflection is the initial bounce that a sound pressure wave makes off a hard surface. These reflections help our brains to locate the source of a sound, even if we cannot see it. Daniel Kish, president of World Access for the Blind, utilizes this technique every day to help him navigate the world.

Too much reverberation, however, is a different animal. While a first-order reflection is helpful to listeners, anything more can lead to low speech intelligibility and sensory dissonance. The solution to excessive reverberation is to absorb unwanted reflections with acoustic treatments such as polyboard, fabric-wrapped panels, or quilted fiberglass absorbers, and to reflect helpful sound with diffusers and reflectors.

There is no better example than hearing the difference between an untreated reverberation chamber and one with absorptive acoustical treatments. Hear it for yourself:

If you’ve landed on this blog article because you’re in need of treating excessive reverberations, we can help! Oeler Industries, Inc. has been providing intelligent acoustic solutions since 1997, and we are committed to making your space sound great. Reach out to us by clicking here or by calling (412) 884-3000. You can trust our experience and expertise when it comes to sound – it’s all we do.