Abstract
At the early design stage of a speech room, it is important to give consideration to how the room will sound in order to optimise speech intelligibility. The obvious room types falling into this category include lecture theatres, auditoria, conference rooms, drama spaces, courts, meeting rooms and classrooms. The acoustic design should give consideration to the following factors in the order given: 1. Indoor ambient noise levels. 2. Reverberation time and hence, room size and acoustic absorption required. 3. Room geometry – reflections, flutters, focussing and diffusion. 4. Electronic speech reinforcement