How sound travels

Can you imagine hosting a radio program in the middle of a highway full of traffic or trying to sleep with open windows and an open-air party in your neighbourhood? Professional acoustics provide solutions to avoid these situations, which are based on the mechanisms of sound propagation. Let’s find out about them.

After work, we want our house to be a place of peace and tranquility. In radio studios, the quality of the sound and the avoidance of outside noise is vital for broadcasters and technicians. In a theater, the fact that you can listen to the actors even sitting in the last chair is also a matter of science.

Depending on the intensity and type, a sound can be pleasant or annoying for us, it can interfere with our communications or even make it impossible. Therefore, there are disciplines that study how to attenuate the exterior sound, improve the quality of its propagation inside any room or eliminate it completely. Their objectives are to improve our lives and facilitate our work.

Urban acoustics studies the different materials and architectural interventions in urban areas. Architectural acoustics works to improve the sound quality inside the buildings. And, finally, the acoustic insulation seeks to eliminate noise and vibrations or prevent them from going outside.

These disciplines take into account many factors related to sound. For example, how it travels through open air, because it’s different from a closed room. The sound moves in any direction in the form of spherical waves. This means that, if there are no obstacles, any listener located at the same distance from the transmitter will receive the sound without problem.

Main acoustic phenomena

However, in practice, sound finds countless elements in the way that diffuse, absorb, scatter or make it bounce. These obstacles cause the main phenomena that affect the propagation of sound: diffusion, absorption, diffraction and reflection.

In an enclosed space the sound propagates mainly bouncing off the walls (reflection), so the treatment of these surfaces (placing absorbent materials, diffusers or acoustic reflectors) is fundamental for optimum quality.

A large number of companies look for technological solutions to attenuate the exterior sounds or eliminate them completely. In LDA Audio Tech, however, we take care that the warnings issued by our public address and voice evacuation equipment arrive clearly and without distortion to the indicated places to guarantee the safety of the people.

If you want to know more about our public address and voice alarm systems, contact us and we will be happy to help you.