ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to describe and to discuss some more practical aspects of room acoustics, namely the acoustical design of auditoria in which some kind of performance (lectures, music, theatre, etc.) is to be presented to an audience, or of spaces in which the reduction of noise levels is of most interest. Its contents are not just an extension of fundamental laws and scientific insights towards the practical world, nor are they a collection of guidelines and rules deduced from them. In fact, the reader should be aware that the art of room acoustical design is only partially based on theoretical considerations, and that it cannot be learned from this or any other book but that successful work in this field requires considerable practical experience. On the other hand, mere experience without at least some insight into the physics of sound fields and without certain knowledge of psychoacoustic facts is of little worth, or is even dangerous in that it may lead to unacceptable generalisations.
