Rooms acoustics

As a longstanding player in the field of room acoustics, LASA brings nearly 50 years of experience and continues to pursue Research & Development programs aimed at developing innovative parametric design and measurement techniques to enhance the acoustic quality of performance spaces.

Acoustic studies must begin at the earliest conceptual stages, through close collaboration between the architect, the scenographer, and the acoustician. Early fundamental decisions regarding shape and volume are crucial in achieving the venue’s final acoustic performance. Material selection, placement, and geometric detailing also play significant roles in shaping the overall sound quality.

To optimize all these parameters, LASA relies on dedicated design tools and methods that have been continuously refined over the years:

  • GEOM software for rapid, parametric geometric acoustic design of architectural forms (ceilings, side walls, reflectors, balconies, etc.), developed in collaboration with architects and scenographers.
    • This enables early-stage optimization of early reflections, listener envelopment (lateral reflections), and audience coverage, including the design of planar or curved surfaces, suspended elements, dynamic ray tracing, and coverage mapping.
    • Pre-design studies performed prior to consolidation and validation using LASA’s numerical room-acoustic simulation tools based on ray tracing (CATT, etc.).

  • DIFF software for the design, optimization, and estimation of diffusion coefficients for diffusers and diffusely scattering surfaces.

  • Calculation of low–frequency modal behavior of rooms with specific finite element calculation (FEM) code:

  • Room-acoustic modeling software based on ray tracing (CATT Acoustic): computation of impulse responses and room-acoustic parameters (echograms, EDT, reverberation time T, sound strength G, lateral energy LF, definition D50, C80, STI, homogeneity, etc.).

  • Specialized measurement tools and software: including 01dB-ACOEM, REW, BEDROCK Audio, NTI Audio, and MOTU acquisition and analysis systems. These tools are used for measuring reverberation time (T), impulse responses, and room-acoustic parameters (EDT, T, G, LF, D50, C80, STI, homogeneity, etc.).

 

Combined with LASA’s extensive expertise and benchmarking of world-renowned performance venues, these tools allow us to provide a proven design methodology, at the service of the acoustic quality of projects, in a collaborative dynamic with architects and scenographers.

R&D on innovative acoustic walls for these rooms is also a topic on which LASA invests a lot of time in order to provide answers to the challenges of new projects. The examples of resonators optimized for the absorption of very low frequencies or laboratory tests of diffusing elements implemented in concert halls are good examples of the LASA approach.