 Diffusion
in simple terms is the scattering of sound
energy. When sound bounces off hard flat
surfaces, the energy remains very much intact
yielding discrete echoes. These echoes will
produce destructive effects like comb filtering,
standing waves and flutter echoes which degrade
speech intelligibility and music clarity.
Installing
sound diffusers can deal with this problem.
Diffusers
interrupt discrete echoes by scattering or
diffusing sound energy over a wide area without
removing it from the room. This maintains
sound clarity and improves speech
intelligibility.
Demonstration Summary:
Using an array of ping pong balls to represent
sound visually, this video simply demonstrates
what occurs when sound strikes an acoustic
diffuser's surface. First, you will see what
happens when sound hits a flat reflective
surface. The balls all bounce off at the same
time and in the same direction. Then you will
see what happens when sound hits a diffuser. You will immediately notice the energy
of the wave of balls is scattered in all
different directions and deflected at different
times. This is the basic principle behind
acoustic sound diffusion. |
