Sound Affects!

Introduction
for Sound
Affects!
I have long felt that the audio
industry has done itself harm by
neglecting to communicate the
importance of sound in everyday
life. Audio gets overlooked and
undervalued when compared
to lighting, interior design, video
or control, and yet sound affects
peoples work and personal lives,
in terms of both productivity
and enjoyment.
I met Julian Treasure at TED
Global 2010 and he was the rst
person that Id met whod made
a career out of selling the value
of sound to business. It has been
a pleasure to work with Julian on
this book. Intended to communicate the value of sound and to
elevate its importance to anyone
looking to communicate through
technology, Sound Affects is a gift
to our industry and our customers.
Graeme Harrison,
Biamp Systems

Introduction

A
V

The aim of this small book is

to refocus on the A of AV,
exploring why sound quality
matters in business and acting
as a guide to achieve the best
results when installing it.

Sound Affects!

Sound
Matters!
When Biamps Graeme Harrison
approached me to create a handbook for anyone thinking about
installing a professional sound
system I was delighted, because
I have experienced so many commercial spaces, from shops and
ofces to schools and transport
terminals, where poor sound
is having devastating effects on
sales, on communication, on productivity, on customer satisfaction,
or on wellbeing.
This is a big issue.
We can communicate perfectly
well in good quality sound alone;
the same is not generally true of
video. All too often, commercial
insta-lations get diverted by the
glamor of the latest video innovation, whether thats HD, 3D or
whatever comes next, and forget to
deliver sound quality to match. We
live in an increasingly noisy world,
partly because most architects and
designers focus exclusively on the

eyes, which means that far too

many of our spaces sound terrible.
The aim of this small book is to
refocus on the A of AV, exploring
why sound quality matters
in business and acting as a guide
to achieve the best results when
installing sound systems. Its not
a technical manual, though it
does contain a lot of invaluable,
hard-won practical advice from
the experts. Any technical terms
we had to use are flagged with an
* which means they are explained
in a useful glossary at the back.
Whatever your level of technical
knowledge, there should be something in here for you and all of
it will pay off, whether in increased
sales, in happier customers, or in
a more productive and less stressed
workforce. Good quality sound is
simply good business.
Julian Treasure,
The Sound Agency

Julian Treasure is author of the book Sound Business and Chairman of UK-based BrandSound
consultancy The Sound Agency, which numbers Harrods, Nokia, Coca-Cola and BP among its customers.
Julians three TED talks about sound have been viewed an estimated three million times.
Visit www.juliantreasure.com or www.thesoundagency.com for more information.

Introduction

10 Hz

102 Hz

103 Hz

104 Hz

105 Hz

106 Hz

Range of sound frequencies for

humans

Sound
Sound is audible vibration thats
carried through a medium. Were
used to assuming that the medium
is air
, but in fact sound travels
twice as fast and much further
through water
than
through air, which is how some
whales can communicate effectively
over vast distances. Metal is an even
better sonic medium.

One model of ill health denes

it as disharmony in this chord.

Sound is just one type of vibration.

Vibration is living energy: only
inert, dead things are perfectly
still. From the largest cosmic object
to the tiniest subatomic particle,
everything in the universe is vibrating including you. As you read
this, every atom, molecule and cell
in your body is vibrating, creating
a rich chord thats unique to you.

not notice, but that are essential

in producing the timbre and the
meaning of the sound. Thats how
we can discern one persons voice
from another, or read the emotion embedded in a spoken word.
These overtones go all the way
up the audible range and above,

Sound Affects!

A human with excellent hearing

perceives a spectrum from about
20 Hertz* (Hz) to 20 kHz. Almost
every sound we hear comprises rich
harmonics overtones that we may

Speed of sound in sonic media

107 Hz

20 Hz

108 Hz

2:1

109 Hz

2:1

2:1

1010 Hz

2:1

2:1

1011 Hz

2:1

2:1

1012 Hz

2:1

The maximum human audible

range is 10 octaves. Each octave is
an exact doubling of frequency.
We perceive octaves as the same
note because of this exact doubling
of frequency. A higher octaves
waveform contains the frequencies
of all all the lower octaves.
The notes of a perfect fifth have
three and two vibrations respectively
in the same time, also resulting in
a smooth and consonant sound.

which is why its harder to understand people when their voice is

crudely ltered, for example on
the phone: we simply dont have
the information we need for clear
comprehension if these overtones
are missing.
The properties of the harmonic
series are intriguingly fundamental.
First discovered by Pythagoras,
later investigated by Kepler, the
ratios of the frequencies of the
notes in intervals we nd pleasing
always involve whole numbers
(for example an octave is 2:1;
a perfect fth is 3:2 and so on).
If we make sound visible by passing
it through a metal plate with sand
on it (a process known as cymatics),
the patterns formed are symmetri-

2:1
C D E F G A B C

3:2
C D E F G

cal, beautiful and reminiscent of

natural shapes such as snowakes
or owers.
We cant make light, but we can
make sound. Sound is part of
what we are. Isnt it strange that
we are so unconscious of it?

Our visible light spectrum is

just one octave (3.1 x 1014 7.1 x 1014 Hz), but we can hear
10 octaves of sound.

Chapter 1 | Sound

20 kHz

1013 Hz

Tips & traps

Weve interviewed some of Biamps

partners around the world to bring
you sound advice (pun absolutely
intended) on the practicalities of
installing and conguring systems
in different places. From tips and
tricks to cautionary tales, these
sections form an invaluable store
of wisdom. In each environment
we asked the experts for their top
tips (shown here as TIPS) and
common errors to avoid (TRAPS).
Many of them will apply in more
than one situation. They are all
hard earned in the eld.

Conference rooms
Verbal communication is the
whole point of these spaces and
yet they are so often fashioned
for the eyes alone, with little or
no acoustic design and no integration of the AV system at the design
stage. Good conference room
sound doesnt just happen: small
room acoustics are among the most

Sound Affects!

challenging to get right, so its

not easy to achieve a transparent
sound for audio- or video-conferencing. But the return on a proper
investment in sound is massive:
poorly-performing conference
rooms just make a company
look and sound bad, whether its
staff or major clients at the other
end of the call, and uncomfortable
spaces tend to make meetings
go badly. The investment in
an excellent conference room
sound is simply business-critical.
Remember, if your video fails you
can communicate perfectly well in
sound, but the reverse is not true!

TIPS
Get the acoustics right rst:
correcting major acoustical
problems with technology doesnt
often work.
Install ultra-quiet heating,
ventilation and air conditioning

(HVAC): specify under 40

decibels* (dB) of noise at one
meter. Noisy air conditioning
is the most common sound
problem in conference rooms.
Integrate the conferencing AV
system within the architects design
from the start.
Use appropriate microphones
(mics) to capture wanted speech
and minimize background noise.
Train all relevant staff to
become masters of the system
so there are no clunky moments
in critical meetings.

Assuming that a big, impressive

screen equals a great conferencing
system: for intelligibility, sound
matters more than sight.
Skimping on quality
damaging because the experience
of this system will dene how the
company comes across.
Making the system complex
to manage, which can often lead
to fumbling, awkward interludes
where people try to activate
some feature.
Thanks to Jerry Davis (Jeremiah Associates,
USA)

Provide plenty of easy inputs

and preset congurations for all
possible devices.

TRAPS
Retro-tting... the sound system
is not an add-on; its the point!

Tips & traps

Tips & traps

Auditoria
In most auditoria, very few seats
offer perfect line of sight but with
good system design we can ensure
that up to 80% do offer a perfect
auditory experience. Sound creates
at least half of the overall impact
for any audience; they should be
able to close their eyes and still enjoy the event. An appropriate and
well-tuned sound system can create
a good experience for most of the
audience, even if the acoustics
of the auditorium are not ideal.

TIPS
Focus on the main purpose of
the auditorium whenever choices
have to be made (for example

Sound Affects!

theaters usually prioritize clarity

over fullness).
Make sure the sound system is
designed with the actual acoustics
always in mind: there are different
solutions for high and low
reverberation spaces.
Bring in pro audio people as
early as possible, ideally between
schematic design and early
detailed design.
Design in a digital snake from
the start, because cable runs can
be tricky, ugly and costly if left
until last.
Plan for a sound mixing
position in the center of the

auditorium, not in the back row

under a balcony!
Employ experts whose passion
is to tune and optimize the system
continually at every stage from
initial design to the commissioning
of the Digital Signal Processor*
(DSP).

TRAPS
Letting people tell you that
line arrays* are a panacea that
will solve every problem. In fact
they can create excessive sound
energy at the side walls. Point
source clusters* can work better
for small arenas.

Forgetting that loudspeakers

interact with one another:
for example beware of proposals
to install any arrays without
using modeling software to
optimize them.
Mounting loudspeakers next
to physical obstructions: this
will probably create unpleasant
audio effects.
Letting power and signal cables
be run next to each other: they
need to be seperated.
Thanks to Zane Au (Shen Milson Wilke, Hong
Kong) and Deward Timothy (Poll Sound, USA)

Tips & traps

malleus

incus

ear drum

stapes

The human ear

The loudest sound we can tolerate is one trillion

times as powerful as the quietest sound we can
discern. Visualized, this is the difference between
a dot with a diameter of 1 mm and one with a
diameter of 1 000 000 km.

Sound Affects!

10

Hearing
Hearing is the rst sense we
develop: just 12 weeks after
conception, before our ears
have developed, we start to
hear with every cell. Each of us
still hears that way now, with all
of our skin, bone and muscle
though of course the ears are
our specialist hearing organs.
And what specialists they are!
Our audible spectrum is up to 10
octaves: by contrast, we see just one
octave of the light spectrum. We
hear in a complete sphere around
us, locating sounds in space by
calculating tiny differences in their
arrival times at each ear. The loudest sound we can tolerate is around
one trillion times as powerful as
the quietest sound we can discern.
Our hearing process is miraculous.
Think about it: sound waves touch
you right inside your head, causing
your eardrum to vibrate. That small
membrane oscillates uid in your
middle ear, activating three tiny
interlocked bones marvels
of engineering that never stop
moving from before birth to your
nal breath, tirelessly vibrating
thousands of times a second and
passing those vibrations on to

11

the little hairs of your inner ear,

each of which, it is now thought,
detects a separate frequency range,
translating it into an electrical
impulse for the brain to decode.
This decoding is extraordinary
in itself, unpacking as it does the
richness, subtlety and variety of
all the millions of different sounds
we encounter in our lives, as well
as locating every one of them
precisely in space.
Hearing is our primary warning
sense. Its hard wired into our
primal brain, traveling direct to
the instinctive limbic region and
not to the rational, interpretive
cortex where visual signals are
decoded. Thats why its far easier
to upset someone through their
ears than through their eyes:
sound goes very deep, very fast.
And remember, we have no ear lids:
our hearing is working even while
we sleep, carrying out its primary
mission, which is to detect danger.
Hearing is passive, an automatic
system. Listening is another thing
altogether: its a skill, and one that
we are in danger of losing.

Chapter 2 | Hearing

Listening
Listening is making meaning
from sound. Its the active mental
process that interprets those thousands of neural impulses triggered
by the sound waves that touch us,
assembling this complex matrix of
information into a soundscape that
we can understand and act upon.
All of us listen through a set of
lters, though most of us are
completely unaware of them.
These include our culture,
language, beliefs, attitudes,
expectations and intentions.
They have profound effects:
we may simply not perceive
things that fall outside our lters.
For example, thinking that we
know someone well, we can x
our listening for him or her,
unconsciously choosing to hear
only what conforms to this listening (thus reinforcing our belief
about them) and not what conicts
so we effectively deny them
permission to change.
When we form strong, xed expectations based on politics, ethnicity
or the like, we deny entire groups
their real richness and variety by
just not hearing them fully. This
denial can even become physical
deafness, known as stress induced
auditory dysfunction: a sadly all-too
common example of this is the

man who becomes deaf at the

frequency of his wifes voice.
Research shows that most of us
arent very good listeners when
it comes to communication:
we spend up to 60% of our communication time listening [a], but
we retain just 25% of what we hear
[b]. Even this level of performance
is under threat.
Our society is increasingly impatient, preferring soundbites to
oratory and wanting the payoff
now. As we add volume and inputs
(mp3, phone, screen, pad...)
we create a noisier world and
we desensitize ourselves, making
it harder to hear the quiet and
the subtle.
Our media shout; our movies
explode; our need for speed
creates transport noise that robs us
of our health (noise in Europe is
costing one million years of healthy
life each year, according to the
WHO) [c].
Ubiquitous headphone use is fragmenting what were once shared
social soundscapes into millions
of tiny personal sound bubbles, as
well as damaging our hearing (one
in eight American teenagers has
noise induced hearing loss, almost

One in eight American teenagers has noise

induced hearing loss, almost certainly as a
result of headphone abuse.

certainly as a result of headphone

abuse) [d].
We must work to regain our
listening, because it allows us to
be aware of our sonic environment,
and so enables us to design it so
that it supports us.
Fortunately, we can all develop
our conscious listening by using
ve simple exercises.

Silence
Just three minutes a day works
wonders, resetting your ears just
as a sorbet resets your palette in a
meal. If you cant get silence, just
use the quietest place you can nd.

The mixer
Wherever you are, try to distinguish
how many different channels of
sound you are hearing. This is
a great exercise for rening your
listening.

Savoring
Relish mundane sounds by listening with conscious attention: this
can unlock the hidden choir in
(for example) your kettle boiling!

13

Listening positions
A listening position is metaphorical, not physical; it arises
as we change the settings on our
listening lters. The trick is to
be aware of those settings and able
to move them. If you listen from
a different place, your whole reality
can change.

RASA
In conversation, this acronym
stands for: Receive (show that
youre paying attention with
eye contact and body language);
Appreciate (make little noises to
give aural feedback, especially on
the phone); Summarize (the word
so is very powerful); Ask (when
theyve nished, ask questions
to clarify and express interest).
Conscious listening is an essential
skill, whether you are an audio
professional, a business executive,
a manager, a parent or a friend.
If you listen consciously in business,
you are well ahead of the competition, and you can start to design
soundscapes to increase sales, productivity, wellbeing and customer
satisfaction... because sound affects
us all profoundly, even if we are
not aware of it.

Chapter 3 | Listening

Tips & traps

Education
The spoken word is crucial for
understanding, and yet many children sit at the back unable to hear
more than one word in two. Our
challenge is getting even greater as
modern education moves towards
a collaborative environment so
now groups work together, which
can create cacophony. We owe it
to our children to deliver 100%
of their education, wherever they
sit. All thats at stake is the future!

TIPS
Prioritize intelligibility
over everything else.
Set uncompromising goals for
speech intelligibility (SI) and
have it measured after installation
to ensure theyve been met.
Have the space modeled
or if you cant afford that, check
that your supplier has carried out
simple but essential calculations

Sound Affects!

like PAG-NAG (potential acoustic

gain - needed acoustic gain)* to
prevent feedback.
Specify simplicity as an
essential criteria. The operators
are probably not going to be
trained or expert.

TRAPS
Making content a scapegoat
for poor performance (to excuse,
for example, an improperly set
gain structure).
Using omnidirectional mics for
everything: its vital to define and
use the right mics for each usage.
Forgetting the need for
acoustic treatments, which are
often necessary for maximum
intelligibility.
Thanks to Bill Nattress (Shen Milsom Wilke,
USA)

14

15

Tips & traps

Tips & traps

Hotels
A hotel is a theatre with front and
back of house, and all ve senses
are involved in delivering the ideal
guest experience. How strange,
then, that many hotels still install
low-cost ceiling speakers in bars
and lounges regardless of varying
room heights and acoustic properties, and that some function rooms
have unbearable acoustics, or no
sound system, or both!

TIPS
Design every space acoustically
as well as visually: a really bad room
can turn even a good sound system
to mud. Some large ballrooms have
reverberation times as long as eight
seconds, more tting to a cathedral
than a function space!
Aim for maximum
reverberation time* (RT) of one
second in all public areas, and 0.5
sec in spaces smaller than 500 ft2
(50 m2).
Treat ambient noise sources to

Sound Affects!

achieve a low level of background

sound from the room itself.
The target should be NC35*
(retain an acoustician to check
this), which means optimizing
every noise-making device
(HVAC, water features, projector
fans, chillers etc) and choosing
surfaces that absorb, as opposed
to reflect, noise.
Plan for all eventualities, so
install a system that can cope
with anything.
Specify the use of some audio
compression on the content if you
need to make it continuously audible over varying levels of peoplegenerated noise or use Ambient
Noise Compensation* (ANC) to
adjust the levels automatically with
varying ambient noise levels.
Require that your suppliers
provide signed-off cable check lists
as part of the handover document
to ensure correct polarity*:
loudspeakers that are out of

16

polarity can cancel out large bands

of frequency response due to phase
cancellation.

TRAPS
Leaving sound for later: to rent
a sound system for every function
will cost far more in the long run.
Making it complex for guests
to connect their own sources to
in-room systems.
Prioritizing cost at the design
stage: it will cost far more to x a
poor system when guests and clients
are complaining about sound.
Cutting out acoustic measures
or vital components like DSP or
equalizers to value engineer
major spaces in build or ret: the
effect on customer experience will
be both severe and long-lasting.

dB needed for equalisation of the

room, 3 dB for the loudspeaker
non-at frequency response, 2 dB
for the 100/70Volt transformer,
and +6dB headroom... all of this
adds up to 17 dB of gain required
on top of the desired dB level at
ear. This is all too easy to miss in
a proposal, and very expensive to
rectify later.
Using simply dollar per
watt calculations to choose
amplifiers. This is far too simplistic:
manufacturers rarely provide
directly comparative specifications.
Thanks to Ian Harris (ihD, Hong Kong) and
Stephanie Adams Ball (David L Adams
Associates, USA)

Accepting a proposal thats

under-powered. Your supplier
must allow for the additional 6

17

Tips & traps

The four
effects of
sound
Lets unpack exactly how sound
affects us. It does so in four ways.

Physiological
The sound around us changes our
heart rate, breathing, hormone
secretions and even our brain
waves. In the main this happens
through entrainment, the gravitylike process whereby a large, strong
oscillator will bring a smaller,
weaker oscillator into step: for example, if I drop you in a night club
where loud music is playing at 140
beats per minute, your heart beat
and breathing rate will immediately
start to accelerate. Gentle surf, at
about 12 cycles per minute, has the
opposite effect. Sudden or unexpected sounds trigger your ght/
ight reex, traveling instantly to
the limbic system and triggering a
release of cortisol. By the time our
cortex send the reassuring message
that its just a car backring, its too
late: the reex has already done its
work and the hormone is already
in our system. Constant overdosing with cortisol may be a cause
of many of the health complaints
found in our cities, from gastric
issues to high blood pressure, depression and sexual dysfunction.

Sound Affects!

Slow-paced
sound can
increase retail
sales
by

38%

Psychological
We all know how music changes
our mood. Play your happiest or
saddest piece of music, even just in
your head, and your mood changes
dramatically. Music is a potent
essentic form, carrying within
it the emotion encoded by the
composer and performer. Nobody
quite knows how it works, but every
human society throughout all
history has made and used music:
clearly, to be human is to be musical, whether we understand the
process or not. Its not just music
that affects our mood: some natural sounds also have a psychological effect for example, birdsong
makes many people feel secure
because weve learned over
hundreds of thousands of years
that when the birds are singing,
our environment is safe. Its when
they stop that we need to be worried! At the same time, birdsong
tends to make us more alert
because the birds are natures
alarm clock.

Cognitive
Were all familiar with feeling overwhelmed when we try to concen-

18

trate in a noisy, distracting place.

This happens because we have
very limited mental bandwidth
for audio input which is why
you cant understand two people
talking at once. Both writing and
reading involve internal vocalization and symbol manipulation; if
you can hear someone speaking at
the same time, that input takes up
your valuable processing space and
your productivity nosedives by up
to 66%, according to the research
[e]. Many open plan ofces are
highly unproductive as a result.
We urgently need to create quiet
working spaces, as well as open,
team working areas, social spaces
and meeting spaces. More generally, we need to persuade architects
and interior designers to start
putting experience rst and
appearance second when they
make spaces for people to live,
work, learn and play in.

Behavioral
Due to entrainment, our whole
pace of movement changes with
the sound around us. Just think
what happens to your driving style
if you play loud, pumping, adrenalized music in your car. Many shops
and retail centers are losing huge
amounts of money by not understanding this process: they play
fast-paced pop music in the wrong
belief that buzz creates sales,
whereas what they are actually
doing is to speed people up and
thus reduce dwell time and every

19

retailer knows that dwell

time correlates directly with sales.
The research concurs: it shows
that slow-paced sound can increase
retail sales by up to 38%! [f]
At the most basic level, we tend to
move away from unpleasant sound,
and towards pleasant sound.
Retail sound systems that deliver
loud, tinny or distorted music are
causing people to leave faster, or
not even to enter the premises
in the rst place. Forcing people
to remain in places with unpleasant soundscapes simply creates
stress, irritation and negative social
interactions. Good quality sound,
on the other hand, is attractive
and will encourage people to
linger and interact positively.
Not only does sound affect us on
its own: it also changes the effects
of all our other senses through a
little thing called super-additivity.

If you can hear

someone speaking
while reading or
writing it takes up
your processing space
and your productivity
nosedives
by up to

66%

Chapter 4 | The four effects of sound

Tips & traps

Convention Centers
The whole point of a convention
center is to facilitate people
communicating and buying from
one another all of which is
severely impeded if a bad sound
system leaves them hoarse from
shouting after an hour or two.

TIPS

so you can plug in precongured

modular stage boxes. This
means you dont need so many
conventional oor boxes and
gives you maximum exibility.
Work in a team with the
architect, interior designer,
client and relevant staff.

Discover from the client all

the past and possible future uses
of the space, and what the
acoustic strengths and weaknesses
have been.

TRAPS

Use the smallest practicable

zones for maximum exibility.

Overpowering the space.

The system should be transparent
in other words, people should
never be consciously aware that
there is a system!

Create multiple DSP presets

for different situations
(remembering to create a simple,
zero-maintenance default preset
for system reboot).
Use networked systems (e.g.
Audio Video Bridging* (AVB)
or CobraNet*) to localize inputs;
have drop points around the area

Sound Affects!

Assuming you know all the

spaces possible uses: there are
often surprises!

Ignoring the need to correct

acoustics and noise sources
unobtrusively of course.
Thanks to Michael Schwartz (Deliberative
Design, USA).

20

21

Tips & traps

Superadditivity
The latest research from scientists
such as Professor Charles Spence
at Oxford University is revealing
the extent that our senses affect
one another. These so called
crossmodal effects have revealed
that creating congruent messages
produces an effect thats not just
additive: its super-additive in
effect multiplicative.

What do we mean by congruent?

For example, neuroscientific research shows that adding congruent

sound to visual communication
increases impact by just over 1100%.
However, adding incongruent sound
reduces impact by a frightening
86%.
So for vision plus sound, 1 + 1 does
not equal 2... it equals 12! Thats
super-additivity at work, and thats
why its absolutely vital for any organization thats designing a space
to make sure that the aural experience is congruent with the visual.

Sound Affects!

For spaces where spoken communication is the primary purpose (for

example conference rooms, class
rooms, courtrooms, lecture halls
and auditoria), congruence means
a combination of excellent speech
intelligibility and the naturalness
that only comes with high quality
sound, with the desirable outcome
that people dont have to strain
to hear.
For spaces where other activities
are primary (such as shops, hotels,
stadia and transport facilities),
congruence means creating an
overall soundscape that supports
what people are trying to do and is
appropriate for the brand, the environment and the type of people
in the space.

22

Getting it wrong means massively

undermining visual impact. Architects and interior designers please
take note! Designing spaces that
look great is all very well, but if
they sound terrible and are
unpleasant to be in then
the lovely visuals are
largely wasted.
Lets now look at how
to design effective,
appropriate sound
for any space.

&

For vision plus sound, 1 + 1

does not equal 2... it equals 12!

23

Chapter 5 | Super-additivity

Tips & traps

Transportation
Transport environments pose
tough challenges. Concrete, metal
and glass and the sheer size of
these spaces often create poor
acoustics; noise levels vary hugely
as occupancy rises and falls and as
loud vehicles come and go; and the
public address system is likely to be
in virtually constant use. Intelligibility is everything. Passengers get
stressed and irritated if they cant
hear important announcements,
and of course life safety is primary,
and usually a legal requirement:
in an emergency the sound system
must be intelligible or the result
can be literally disastrous. With
modern knowhow and equipment,
it is inexcusable to have people
missing trains or planes (with all
the emotional and economic cost
that may entail) just because they
couldnt hear the announcements.

TIPS
Look for solutions that use
well-placed mics with ANC to
sense ambient noise level and
maintain constant headroom
of signal over noise.

boarding announcements should

be audible only at the relevant gate.
Budget to use lots of
transducers, ideally low down and
close to people, in order to deliver
direct signals without reflections.
Make sure your suppliers are
very familiar with all the current
life safety codes and standards for
your country.

TRAPS
Failing to include effective
telemetry back from the ampliers
in order to give clear warnings
when components fail: eyeballing
and walking about simply dont
work in these big spaces.
Forgetting to install mics
in the main spaces to allow
headphone monitoring by your
staff in the control room for
quick and easy health checks,
for example to spot feedback.
Thanks to Mark Rogers (Greenbusch Group,
USA) and Gary Nagle (Dobil Laboratories, USA)

Plan zones to localize sound

appropriately; for example,

Sound Affects!

24

25

Tips & traps

3 Drivers
Time
Pitch
Texture
Density
Dynamics

1 Outcome

2 Filters

Physiological

Function

Psychological

Environment
People

Cognitive

Brand / Values

Behavioural

In order to design a soundscape, we must

rst dene the outcomes we want, then
the lters specic to this situation, then
we can dene the sound thats going to
achieve our goals given those lters.

Sound Affects!

26

How to
design a
soundscape
Although the task may at rst seem
very complex, The Sound Agencys
SoundFlow model gives us a
clear structure for this process.
In order to design a soundscape,
we must rst dene the outcomes
we want, then the lters specic to
this situation, then we can dene
the sound thats going to achieve
our goals given those lters.
The outcomes are physiological, psychological, cognitive and
behavioral. For example, we might
aim to create a state thats body
relaxed, feeling positive and open,
cognitively clear, and inclined to
stay in the space.
Then we consider the lters:
function (what are people trying
to achieve in the space); environment (ambient noise, acoustics and
sound system); people (what do
they like or dislike); and brand or
values (you should be able to close
your eyes in every branded space
and know where you are). Most of
these lters will be given, vital to
understand when designing with
sound but beyond our control.

27

However sometimes we can optimize the environmental aspects;

some suggestions as to how to do
this will follow later.
Finally we derive all the building
blocks of sound: its pace (do we
want to speed people up or slow
them down?); its frequency range
(higher frequencies and harmonics tend to create alertness, low
frequencies tend to numb); its
texture (the waveform and feel of
the sound, or in the case of music
the genres and artists); its density
(high-density sound like music
especially with vocals calls for
our attention, whereas low-density
sound like stochastic birdsong,
ambient-style music or even
repetitive trance music is easily
set aside and doesnt hog mental
bandwidth) and nally its dynamics
(the louder relative to ambient
sound, the more impactful; the
greater the variation in volume,
the more dense and demanding
the soundscape will be).

Chapter 6 | How to design a soundscape

Tips & traps

Retail
In the fast-moving world of retail,
its easy to focus solely on visual
appearance and thus to undervalue
sound. However, research shows
that the right retail soundscape
can increase sales by 38%!
A great retail sound system will
meet the challenge of combining
appropriate looks with great quality
and even sound coverage throughout the space.

TIPS
Design for exibility, creating
as many zones as possible so that
you can customize soundscapes
for demographics and respond as
the store layout inevitably changes
through time.

Sound Affects!

Make sure your suppliers

are using different types of
loudspeakers for different jobs;
this may require the creation
of technical zones for areas with
particular ceiling heights so
that gains can be set and even,
consistent coverage maintained.
Budget for ANC to respond to
ambient noise variations. If thats
not possible for some reason, give a
small number of authorized people
easy access to the system
for volume changes.
Use loudspeakers that blend
in with the visual design and
pick locations sensitively so that
the system adds to, rather than
subtracts from, the overall look.

28

 Insist on listening tests so

you can choose a system that
your senior management can be
confident will deliver sound that
matches the brand values.
Use enough loudspeakers to
achieve even, high quality coverage.

Delegating sound system

selection to your technical people
who may have no stake in customer
experience or brand expression.
Forgetting to employ an
acoustics specialist to model
the space.

Accepting any solution based

on one big zone.

Putting cost at the top of the

purchase criteria. Compared to the
rest of the t-out, sound is low cost
but high impact.

Allowing your architect or

designer to create a space thats
acoustically uncomfortable (for
example all reective surfaces,
with reverberation time of a second
or more): this will simply reduce
dwell time and therefore lose sales.

Playing the same music as

everyone else. Instead, employ
a specialist to express your
unique brand sound in music or
soundscapes so that people could
close their eyes and know where
they are.

TRAPS

Thanks to Ken OByrne (LSIS, Hong Kong)

29

Tips & traps

Creating
the right
environment
Noise
Many retailers can transform
a shops soundscape simply by
closing its door to street noise
(research shows that, contrary to
received wisdom, this has absolutely no negative effect on sales).
For any commercial space, always
specify maximum noise output
when ordering equipment like
HVAC, chiller cabinets and IT:
we recommend 40 dB at one
meter as a default. Squeaks, hums
and buzzes resulting from broken
or badly-congured equipment
should be spotted and promptly
xed. Every space, from a corporate HQ to a shopping mall,
stadium or station, should have
someone senior with the added
role of sound manager, touring
the space to listen regularly against
a checklist in order to maintain an
optimal soundscape.

Acoustics
Inappropriate acoustics can be
xed, or at least greatly improved,

Sound Affects!

with simple treatments: its always

worth having a checkup from an
acoustician, and every design
project should involve one at an
early stage. The most important
aspect of any space is reverberation time (RT). As a rule of thumb
where speech intelligibility is
important, RT should be under
one second, and parallel walls
should be avoided or broken up
with non-reective ttings. This
is absolutely vital in meeting and
meeting rooms, where miscommunication is simply unacceptable. A
good conference room, especially
one with an audio conferencing
system, needs proper sound insulation from outside and good,
clear acoustics. This usually means
plenty of absorbent surfaces, such
as carpet, acoustic ceiling tiles and
curtains, and may require special
sound absorbers or diffusers.
The value of good acoustics in any
communication space is enormous.
Once weve controlled noise and
optimized acoustics, we can install
a sound system.

30

Always
design
spaces for
experience,
not just
appearance.
31

Chapter 7 | Creating the right environment

Tips & traps

Healthcare
The stakes are high for sound
in healthcare, especially in
hospitals. For years, function has
driven architecture and design,
and scant attention has been
paid to the auditory experience.
The sad outcome is a combination of challenging acoustics and
multiple unpleasant noise sources.
Stand in an intensive care room
and listen to the hisses, beeps
and buzzes and wonder how people
get well (or work) in such a negative
soundscape. Improving this is going
to be a long haul. Sound systems
can make the situation better,
not worse, by focusing on quality
to deliver excellent intelligibility
in spoken communication, because
poor intelligibility creates stress,
conict and misunderstandings
which in these places can be
life-threatening.

Eliminate all the

electromechanical noise you can;
then ensure that your audio system
is adapted to deliver in spite of any
that remains.
Plan for high use and low
support: systems must be theft and
vandal proof, and simple enough
to be managed and maintained
by your (non-technical) staff,
which may mean compromises
have to be made.
Create highly targeted zoning
for the paging system, using ANC
to minimize volume levels, and
integrate nurse call.

TRAPS

TIPS

Forgetting to insist that your

solution includes Acoustic Echo
Cancellation* (AEC) and audiomixing for any audio/video
conferencing systems.

Optimize room acoustics as

far as possible, working with an
acoustician; then, optimize the
system for the acoustics you are
left with.

Settling for table-top

speakerphones in large rooms
they simply dont deliver because
distant people cant hear or
be heard.

Ensure the supplier does a

thorough needs assessment with
you to ensure they completely
meet your needs and expectations.

Choosing a too-rigid solution:

these environments change,
so the system must be adaptable.

Sound Affects!

Thanks to Ben Shemuel (Teecom, USA)

32

33

Tips & traps

The sound
system
Always get the best sound system
you can afford, matching its quality to the quality standards of the
brand or other set of values behind
the space, and also to the intended
outcomes. I have lost count of
the times I have been shocked by
appalling sound in high-quality
branded spaces like luxury shops
or high class hotels or restaurants.
Sometimes this is due to the low
priority given to sound: someone
technical with no brand experience
has been given the job of choosing the sound system and theyve
gone for cheap, low-end loudspeakers and ampliers to save money.
Sometimes the system is broken or
badly set (for example equalization
completely askew because someone
bumped into the controls) and
nobody has noticed. Sometimes its
because the system is mis-specied
or badly installed, creating hotspots, voids or overspills with competing sound sources clashing.
Often, there is a further problem
with the content itself being poor
quality (typically over-compressed,
either digitally or aurally, or both).
There are three essential
requirements for an effective
sound system.

Consistency
Sound Affects!

The sound experience should be

consistent in quality and quantity
everywhere in the space. If you
have varying ceiling heights or
acoustics, this can present a real
challenge. Get a professional to
do some acoustic modeling so that
the right speakers can be set at the
right levels to make sure you dont
have hotspots and voids. Install
enough speakers to achieve even
coverage. Use ANC to track ambient
sound levels automatically, so that
staff dont have to keep changing
the volume (or forgetting to!).

Quality
Set your bar high. Involve senior
people with an interest in brand
experience in testing different
systems until you nd one that
reects the values you hold and
that creates the customer experience you want. Remember those
hidden yet important harmonics:
high quality sound contains many
more of them, so it communicates
better, can be set at lower levels
and is more comfortable to be in.
If you have challenging acoustics
(for example in a stadium or a rail
terminus) use the latest speaker
technology and acoustic treatments
to reduce echoes. There are loudspeakers now for every possible

34

There are three essential

requirements for an effective
sound system...
purpose, from highly directional
(creating pools or beams of sound)
to surface transducers and panels
that turn whole walls, ceilings or
windows into loudspeakers.
With this many tools in our bag,
there is no excuse for delivering
a poor audio experience today,
even in the most demanding
spaces. Where possible, use high
sensitivity* loudspeakers as they
need less powerful and thus less
expensive amplifiers.

Flexibility
Create the smallest zones you
can so that you can recombine
them in different congurations
as your space changes. Build in
the ability to inject a mic or line
signal simply in every zone
for announcements, speeches,
parties or any requirement you
cant foresee right now. Go digital
to make your system futureproof and exible. With features
like internet-based control of
scheduling and routing for multiple sources and delivery points;
wi control pads that allow in situ
tweaks of volume, equalization
(EQ) and content; and sophisticated DSP such as ANC and AEC
to give you full control and the
best results throughout the system.

35

There are also no knobs to be

bumped or twiddled, preventing
many problems!

A word on content
Of course, any system is only as
good as its weakest link. Content
quality is important too: putting
64 kbps mp3 music through a great
sound system is unjustiable today
with the cost of storage so low and
still falling. Use the least compression your network bandwidth will
permit, with bitrates ideally always
above 192 kbps stereo (96 kbps
mono). Severe data compression
is a very common mistake,
removing the richness and
information content of sound.
Most important of all, use experts
when deciding what to play,
whether its a music playlist or a
generative soundscape. Remember:
sound affects people, so beware of
choosing pop music just because
someone on the team likes it!

...consistency, quality
and flexibility.
Chapter 8 | The sound system

Tips & traps

Courtrooms
These are possibly the most
demanding audio installations
around, partly because of the
multiple sources and the need for
universal intelligibility, and partly
because of the high cost of bad
sound in human terms. Quality
sound is critical in courtrooms
because it increases comfort and
reduces stress vital when people
can be in these spaces, often under
great duress, for hours at a stretch.
A court is all about verbal communication, so excellent speech intelligibility is fundamental: straining
to hear someone creates unnecessary extra anxiety. This is theatre
in the round, where everyone in
the space must be able to hear
everyone else. Acoustics are
variable, which is why system
design is key: a good system can
to some degree compensate for
a poor space, while a bad system
in a good space doesnt work.

TIPS
Take a holistic approach
to design.

Sound Affects!

36

 Set the clear goal of

recreating natural conversational
sound, despite the large distances
between people. Nobody should
feel they have to raise their voice
to be heard.

live sound, but if people turn

their heads away from such mics,
their voices can simply disappear
from a recording.

Specify that the frequency

response at the listeners ear
should be 120 Hz 12 kHz
(within 2 dB).

Thinking this is easy: it isnt!

Ask to have beam steered

array loudspeakers and top
class auto-mixers* included in
your options: they can make a
quantum difference to the level
of gain you can achieve before
feedback sets in.
Ensure the auto-mixer you
are being offered can distinguish
between wanted and unwanted
speech.
Be sure to stipulate if
recording may be required, in
which case your system may need
to balance live and recorded
sound requirements. Rifle-type
mics may be ideal for optimising

37

TRAPS
Using a mix-minus (aka
clean feed) system: they can
lead to a judge at one end of
a bench not being able to hear
what a colleague at the other
end is saying.
Using only ceiling
loudspeakers: they can create
a disconnect between the
visual source and the aural
leading to what Canadian
sound author Murray Schafer
calls schizophonia. This can
produce discomfort and make
comprehension more difcult.
Over-amplifying though
equally bad is under-powering.
Thanks to Rod Louey-Gung (Telepresence
World, Australia) and Glenn Leembruggen
(Acoustic Directions, Australia)

Tips & traps

Glossary of
terms used
This glossary of terms will help
you to understand some of the
technical terms used by audio
professionals. This will enable you
to better understand the solutions
that they propose and to judge
whether they are right for you.
Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC)
a DSP algorithm that removes
unwanted echoes in video and
teleconferencing applications.
Ambient Noise Compensation
(ANC) a DSP algorithm that
maintains a constant headroom
over ambient noise levels, sometimes termed autogain.
Audio Video Bridging (AVB) a
set of standards developed by a task
group of the IEEE 802.1 committee
for the purpose of transmitting
low latency time-synchronized
audio and video data over layer
2 networks.
Auto-mixer an audio processor
(or algorithm within a DSP) which
turns mics on and off automatically as people speak. This allows
mics which are not being used and
are only picking up ambient noise
to be turned off, and so improves
intelligibility.
CobraNet a proprietary (owned
by Cirrus Logic) layer 2 Ethernet

Sound Affects!

protocol for transmitting timesynchronized audio data.

Decibel (dB) a logarithmic scale
that measures Sound Pressure
Level* (SPL) (among other things),
with 0 dB being roughly equivalent
to the threshold of human hearing. As human hearing is not flat
across frequencies, weighting scales
are often applied to compensate.
Throughout this book, dB
refers to A-weighted dB, usually
written dBA.
Digital signal processor (DSP)
an audio computer containing
algorithms that alter digital sound,
for example to filter, delay, mix
or route it, or to add or remove
artifacts such as echo or feedback.
Hertz (Hz) a unit of frequency
or oscillation in cycles per second.
From 1,000 Hz up we use kilohertz
(kHz).
Line array a group of loudspeakers (drivers) arranged in a line.
Placement and or processing of the
drivers increases directivity control,
reducing reflections and reverberation and so improving intelligibility.
NC35 This refers to the Noise
Criterion curve value of 35. These
curves are used to determine what
the acceptable noise level is for

38

a given space. As a point of reference, NC20 to 25 curves are used

for theaters and performing art
centers, while NC45 to 55 are
used for places such as kitchens,
laundry facilities or computer
equipment rooms.

which is the time it takes for the

sound in a space to decay by 60
dB below the SPL of the original
sound. An RT of less than one
second is fairly dry, while huge
reverberant spaces like cathedrals
can have RT of up to 10 seconds.

Needed Acoustic Gain (NAG) the

NAG equation is used to determine
how much gain (in dB) is required
by the sound system so the acoustic
level at the farthest listening
position equates to that at the
nearest listening position without
a sound system.

Sensitivity (in loudspeakers)

a measure of how efficient the
speaker is at turning electrical
energy into sound. Its usually
expressed as x dB with 2.83 V
@ 1 m, in other words the SPL
measured at one meter directly
in front of the speaker with 1
watt of input (which for a typical
8 ohm speaker is 2.83 volts).
An increase of 3 dB in this
rating means you will need half
as much power to achieve the
same SPL though see below
about the difference between
SPL and perceived loudness.

Point source cluster a group

of loudspeakers positioned and
processed to cover a wide area
while giving the audience the impression that the sound is coming
from a single point.
Polarity simply connecting
positive to positive and negative
to negative. Doing this the wrong
way around can create phase cancellation effects and ruin sound.
Potential Acoustic Gain (PAG)
the PAG equation is used to determine how much gain (in dB) is
available before the system reaches
the point of feedback.

Sound pressure level (SPL)

a measure of sound amplitude,
rather than its perceived volume.
SPL is measured in dB, and
a general guideline is that an
increase of 10 dB is perceived
as a doubling of loudness.

Reverberation time (RT) in each

case in this book we mean RT60,

39

Glossary of terms

Thanks to
Julian Treasure, with his great passion for sound and the knowledge
to back up this passion. He does
great work through his company,
The Sound Agency, and I highly
recommend him to anyone needing advice about using sound,
especially in branding.
Salom Galjaard and Anna
Witteman are equally as passionate about their own world of data
visualization and design, and I
cannot recommend their company,
Imaginary Numbers, too highly to
anyone requiring these services.
Biamp Systems share this passion
in our case, for making truly
great audio processing equipment.
I would like to thank everyone at
Biamp who has participated in this
project, especially Steve Metzger,

Sound Affects!

Matt Czyzewski and Stacy Butchart. More importantly, Id like to

thank Biamp for having the vision
to embrace this project and their
magnanimity in offering it as a gift
to the industry that we love.
Finally Julian, Salom and I rst
met at the 2010 TED Global conference in Oxford and this meeting
led to this and a number of other
related projects. TED is a home
to anyone wanting to explore
and pursue possibility and wonder.
Talks from their conferences
are available to anyone through
their website, www.ted.com.
Visit this website and you might
well be hooked!
Graeme Harrison,
November 2011

40

Copyright

Notes

The ear on page 4, 10 and 22/23 Perception

SpaceThe Final Frontier, A PLoS Biology Vol.
3, No. 4, e137 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030137
([1]/[2]), vectorised by Inductiveload.

[a] Barker, L, Edwards, R., Gaines, C., Gladney,

K & Holley, F. (1980). An investigation of proportional time spent in various communication
activities by college students.
Journal of Applied Communication Research,
8, 101-09.

page 6-7 Caruntu /shutterstock.com

page 8-9 hxdbzxy /shutterstock.com
page 14-15 cozyta /shutterstock.com
page 16-17 DavidXu /shutterstock.com
page 20-21 joyfull /shutterstock.com
page 24-25 Keith Gentry /shutterstock.com
page 28-29 Pavel Losevsk /shutterstock.com
page 32-33 Romaset /shutterstock.com
page 36-37 trekandshoot /shutterstock.com
Weve tried our utmost best to present the correct copyright information. If you feel you have
not been credited properly, please contact us.

[b] Nichols, R. & Lewis, T, Listening and

Speaking. Dubuque, Iowa. Wm C Brown Co,
1954.
[c] WHO press release: New evidence from
WHO on health effects of traffic-related noise in
Europe. 30 March 2011
[d] A.S. Niskar, S.M. Kiesak, A. Holmes, E. Esteban, C. Rubin and D.C. Brody (1998) Prevalence
of Hearing Loss Among Children 6 to 19 Years
of Age.
Published in Journal of the American Medical
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[e] Banbury, S. and Berry, D. C. (1998) Disruption of office-related tasks by speech and office
noise. British Journal of Psychology, 89,
pp 499-517.
[f] Milliman, R. E., (1982) Using background
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46, pp 86-91.

41