Audio Correction

MICKEY ASHLOCK GREG MATTHEWS RONNY SULLIVAN

Sound- Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear.“Light travels faster than sound."

What is a Sound Wave?

Sound Waves

Why is sound Important?

• Provides information about the world around you.

• Two basic functions:• Signaling • Communication

Vision is approximately 120 degrees of arch

Speech Perception

• Basic human trait to identify sounds.

• Listen to a Radio while doing other tasks.

• Watching a poor quality video if the Sound is good.

Apply Physic Principles in the Real World

Purpose:

•Identify issues and apply solutions to Audio system

at

Mediacom Ice Park

Current Issues:

• Unable to understand the announcements.

• Distorted Audio / Music.

• Lacking crowd participation.

• Spectators disconnected from events.

Mediacom Ice Park Unique Audio Setup

• 18 Speakers located around the Rink.

• Speakers are pointed in different directions.

• All speakers are mono.

• No Ability to change the volume of individual speakers.

• Hard reflective surfaces .

• Protective Glass and Plexiglas surrounds the ice.

Mediacom Ice Park Current Speaker Locations

Hypothesis:

If the muffled vocal is related to Constructive and Destructive wave interference, then reducing or counteracting the waves will improve the sound clarity.

Why sound waves diminish (lose energy)

As it travels, a sound wave's energy is slowly lost as heat, through friction. Because a gas, such as the air, presents less friction to a sound wave than a solid, it can travel a longer distance before all it's energy is lost. A solid, on the other hand, will quickly absorb the sound wave, turning its energy into heat, and preventing it from travelling as far.

Anechoic chamber

Mediacom Ice Park Current Speaker Locations

Proposed Speaker Placement

Superposition of Waves:Constructive and Destructive interference

What is a dB?

The decibel ( dB) is used to measure sound level.For instance, suppose we have two sound sources, the first playing a sound with power P1, and another playing a louder version of the same sound with power P2, but everything else (how far away, frequency) kept the same.

The difference in decibels between the two is defined to be:

10 log (P2/P1) dB , where the log is to base 10.If the second produces twice as much power than the first, the difference in dB is

10 log (P2/P1) = 10 log 2 = 3 dB.

RTA – Real Time Analyses

Correction with a EQ

This kind of graphic EQ is visually incorrect; what you see is not what you get...

Calibrated Microphone and DSP – Digital Signal Processer

UMIK-1 MINIDSP 2X4

REW-Room EQ Wizard

Measurement locations

Superposition of Waves Correction.

Results:

• Improved clarity of music

•Voices are audible

•DSP is able to be turned on and off to test end results

Conclusion:• Identified current issues.

• Used physic principles to understand the sound interaction.

• Recommended changing the direction of speakers to reduce reflection.

• Analyzed current sound system and developed an EQ solution.

Questions?