TerraSonde Newsletter

:news:

Strategic Alliance with Auralex Acoustics
Terrasonde and Auralex have officially joined forces. We will be offering joint classes through the Institute for Audio Excellence as well as several bundled products for the recording studio and contractor market. Our first product together will feature the Studio Toolbox and will most likely debut at NAMM in Anaheim. Please visit the Auralex website or TerraSonde website for more information.

:new products/services:

Calibration Service Now Available For All Audio Toolbox Users
TerraSonde is now offering calibration services for all Audio Toolbox users. Calibration includes restoration of all hardware to original factory spec, calibration of microphone to within .5 dB tolerance, upgrade of firmware to latest version, upgrade of any circuitry as needed, upgrade of battery unit. the unit will be returned with a 90 day warranty, calibration documentation and calibration sticker. We recommend calibration to be performed yearly.

In order to make the process as easy as possible, free ground shipping both ways is included in the price.

7-10 day turnaround. $175.00 Contact TerraSonde directly to schedule or for more information.

The Digital Audio Toolbox Now Shipping
The ultimate digital audio test and measurement tool. This Toolbox includes 24bit/96k dual inputs and outputs and performs over 24 different digital audio tests and analyses. The applications are far reaching, from serving as a highly portable, accurate bench test tool for manufacturers to digital audio analysis in live sound and touring environments, to digital studio optimization, to digital audio and video testing in the broadcast and post production industries.

click here for more information

The Studio Toolbox Shipping In December
We are finishing up development on this product and expect to be shipping the first part of December.
This Toolbox is aimed specifically at the studio owner and features over 35 different tools for recording studios of all sizes. Tools include studio setup acoustic analysis tools, recording tools, midi tools, time code tools, mastering tools and more! This product is sold through our dealers and manufacturers reps. It will also be available as a firmware upgrade for all current Toolbox owners.

click here for more information

Analysts Firmware Avaliable in December
Our latest firmware module brings three powerful new tools to the Toolbox platform; TDA (Time Delay Analysis), STIpa (Speech Transmission Index for Public Address) and a multi-band RT60 measurement. Imagine the power of a TEF 10/12, the latest in Speech Intelligibility testing and multiple RT60 times from one pink noise burst combined with all of the other Contractors firmware tools and a special version of TerraLink!

click here for more information

:Institute for Audio Excellence:

Did you know that one of the most common causes of poor speech intelligibility in houses of worship and auditoriums is a hard balcony face? Since the balcony typically juts into the room, reflections from it arrive at listeners’ ears at a level that can cause some serious problems with the communication of speech.

And the areas where this will be the worst?

Probably the “best seats in the house”!

Why?
It’s all about timing. In a typical installation, the loudspeakers are hung from the ceiling somewhere towards the front of the room. They fire sound down at the listeners. The relative distances between the loudspeakers, the listeners’ ears and the balcony face will dictate whether or not this is (or is going to be) a big problem. A strong reflection arriving at the listener’s ears at 31 ms, for example, after the direct sound will be perceived as a strong reflection. Due to the speed of human speech, a strong reflection at 31 ms is a bad thing. It will make speech more difficult to understand. (Click here to see the math!)

What to do?
If you’re in the design phase for a new worship facility, consider angling the balcony face towards the ceiling by about 10°. This will bounce the reflection up towards the ceiling. It’s not a great solution, but it helps.

The best solution is treating the entire face of the balcony with acoustical material. Absorption or diffusion can work well. Choose absorption if you want a more “dead” space (though only facing the balcony with absorption will not make the whole room acoustically “dead”).

Choose diffusion to disperse the reflection without making the room too “dead.” You’ll be surprised about how easy (and relatively inexpensive) it can be to make this one small change. It will improve the acoustics of the space and help the “best seats in the house” live up to their name!

Let’s look at an example: The distance from the main cluster to a listener’s ears is 25 feet. The distance from the main cluster to the balcony face is 40 feet. The distance from the listener’s ears to the balcony face is 20 feet.

To Summarize:
D(s-l) = 25’ (speaker to listener distance)
D(s-b) = 40’ (speaker to balcony face distance)
D(b-l) = 20’ (balcony face to listener distance)
The direct sound arrives at the listener’s ears in about 22 milliseconds (ms = 1/1000th of a second) because sound travels at 1,130 feet per second. The reflected sound arrives at the listener’s ears later. The arrival time of the reflection can be calculated by adding up the total distance traveled. In this example: D(s-b) + D(b-l) = D(refl) = 40 + 20 = 60 feet = about 53 ms.

The difference in arrival time can be found by subtraction: D(refl) – D(s-l) = D(diff) = 60 – 25 = 35 feet = about 31 ms.