Broadcast Studio

Broadcasting is all about transmitting a message and having it understood by those that are listening. The fundamental principle behind broadcast acoustics is that the treatment should improve communication and bring intelligibility up to the very highest level.

If left untreated, sound from the talent’s voice will echo off wall surfaces and come back into the microphone causing comb-filtering as various frequencies combine and cancel making it difficult to comprehend what is being said. Add to this, the echo and reverberant field and clarity is lost.

The solution is simple: Apply acoustic treatment to the wall surfaces. This will eliminate flutter echo, significantly reduce first order reflections and vastly improve communication. Following the acoustic bell curve, the more treatment you put up on the wall, the greater the ambient noise you will attenuate.

The following images depict a radio broadcast environment. In both cases, if wall are left untreated, first order reflections and flutter echo will cause comb-filtering as various frequencies combine or cancel each other out. The same applies to radio broadcast, sound stages for film and even pod-casting to the internet: treating the wall surfaces will reduce the reverberant field which in turn will improve intelligibility over the air.

As broadcast is all about transmitting the human voice, it serves us well to quickly look at the frequency range we are concerned with and the relative energy contained within. As shown here, most of the energy is centered between 300Hz and 2000Hz. This clearly tells us that in order to control the reverberant field in this frequency region, the acoustic panel choice must be effective from 300Hz and up. The following graph superimposes the absorptive characteristics of a Broadway 2-inch panel with the relative loudness of a human voice. This clearly shows how well the Broadway works within the target frequency range.

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Determining Coverage

To help work out budgets, we have created a series of tables. Start by calculating the floor space and then go to the table that matches your approximate wall height. From there, you can choose between light or medium absorption based on your preferred working environment. As intelligibility is critical, we suggest that one should err on more to ensure as much of the ambient field is absorbed as possible. For added low frequency control, we would recommend adding Cumulus tri-corner traps or for music production, adding some MaxTraps or FullTraps will help control low frequency standing waves and resulting room modes.