Pilot Study: The Impact Of Sound Absorption From Stage House On Acoustics Of Auditorium In Theater

A good sound quality is very essential to theater, and stage house has a great impact onthe sound quality of theater. For a long time, the acoustic design of domestic theaters usuallyfocuses on the auditorium, ignoring the stage house, which leads to a lack of acoustictreatment means of stage house. For example, in the acoustic design of theater, in spite of theimpact of stage house, the proscenium is usually substituted by a sound-absorbing surfaceendowed with a common absorption coefficient when calculating reverberation time or aidingby computer simulation. However, due to the different size and layout of scenery, curtains,lighting and stage machinery in stage house, the sound absorption of stage varies greatlyamong theaters. Besides, the coupling between stage house and auditorium tends to result in alarge deviation between design and measured values of some acoustic quantities, whichaffects the quality of acoustic design. Then, which value of absorption coefficient should begiven to the proscenium during the acoustic design of theater? And what impact does thecoupling effect between stage house and auditorium have on the sound quality? There is nounified conclusion so far. Therefore, it is imperative and full of applied worth to deeply studythe coupling effect between stage house and auditorium as well as its influence on the mainacoustic parameters of auditorium by means of computer simulation and scale model tests toguide theaters’ acoustic design.Taking Tianjin Theatre of Cultural Center for example, adopting advanced acoustic scalemodel testing techniques and aiding by three-dimensional computer simulation of roomacoustics, my dissertation attempts to explore the impact of sound absorption from stagehouse on the main acoustic quantities of auditorium in theater, such as early decay time EDT,reverberation time T20or T30, clarity C80, sound strength G, and so on.