ABSTRACT
Up to now we have dealt with sound propagation in a medium which was unbounded in every direction. In contrast to this simple situation, room acoustics is concerned with sound propagation in enclosures where the sound-conducting medium is bounded on all sides by walls, ceiling and floor. These room boundaries usually reflect a certain fraction of the sound energy impinging on them. Another fraction of the energy is ‘absorbed’, i.e. it is extracted from the sound field inside the room, either by conversion into heat or by being transmitted to the outside by the walls. It is just this combination of the numerous reflected components which is responsible for what is known as ‘the acoustics of a room’ and also for the complexity of the sound field in a room.
