Effect of Seat Spacing Density on Reverberation Time

Krzysztof Rudno-Rudzinski
Wroclaw University of Technology, Institute of Telecommunication, Teleinformatics and Acoustics, PL-50370 Wroclaw, Wyspianskiego 27, Poland,
krzysztof.rudno-rudzinski@pwr.wroc.pl

The strict fire-control regulations require a larger distance between seats in opera and concert halls,
theatre auditoria and similar rooms. Consequently, the hall’s reverberation time changes when the seats
are replaced. In addition, there are few data on the reverberation coefficient of sound absorption by seats
depending on how densely they are spaced. The modernization of Wroclaw University of Technology’s
Lecture Theatre provided an opportunity for carrying out reverberation time measurements for different
seat spacings and arrangements. The Lecture Theatre has a cuboidal shape and a total capacity of
4000 m3. The maximum number of seats is 449. The measurements were performed for different numbers
of seats and for a constant number of seats but differently arranged in the Lecture Theatre. The effect of
spacing between blocks of seats and the effect of a seat block’s circumference were investigated. The
reverberation time measurement results were analysed with regard to the absorption coefficient.

1 Introduction 2 Description of Lecture Theatre

The spacing of seats in auditoria is determined by,
among other things, fire-control regulations which
specify the minimum width of the aisles and the
spacings between the rows of seats. The growing safety
requirements bring about changes in regulations aimed
at facilitating evacuation in case of a fire. As a result,
the distances between rows and between blocks of
seats increase. More stringent regulations apply to new
or modernized auditoria. A change in seat spacing
density affects the auditorium’s acoustic properties.
According to Beranek [1] “…in a large hall for musical
performances the absorbing power of a seated
audience, chorus and orchestra, or empty upholstered
seats, increases in direct proportion to the floor they
occupy, almost independent of the number of seated
persons or chairs in that area, provided that the seats
are nearly 100 % occupied. This hypothesis is valid for
seating densities in the range 0.45 to 0.79 m2 of floor
space per person and for halls with normally diffuse
sound fields.”
Davies, Orlowsky and Lam [2] through measurements
in a reverberation chamber determined that the sound
absorption coefficient changes with inter-row spacings
typical for auditoria: as the spacing between rows
increases, the sound absorption coefficient decreases.
The inter-row spacing effect depends on the absorbing
power of the seats. They found that if a given seat’s
sound absorption is known for two inter-row spacings,
then linear extrapolation can be a good first
approximation.
In order to ascertain whether reverberation chamber
test results are applicable to larger halls and halls with
greater acoustic absorption, investigations were carried
out in Wroclaw University of Technology’s Lecture
Theatre.
Wroclaw University of Technology’s Lecture Theatre
has the shape of a 31.3 m long, 14.6 m wide and 9.2 m
high cuboid. There is a 0.5 m high stage at its front and
a balcony extending 7.3 m into the room (the clearance
under balcony amounts to 2.8 m) at its back. There are
operator booths on the balcony and its arrangement of
seats is amphitheatric. The Lecture Theatre’s interior
has a capacity of 3785 m3. Upstage there is a system of
reflecting surfaces forming some kind of theatrical flats
allowing passage behind the stage.
The room’s floor, including the stage floor, is laid with
oaken parquet glued to 24 mm thick hard chipboards.
The ceiling is flat with visible beams. The side walls,
with windows occupying 37% of the surface area, are
partially lined with gypsum boards (including
perforated ones).
3 Measurement method
Reverberation time was measured by the impulse
response backward integration method implemented in
Bruel&Kjaer Dirac software. MLS noise with pink +
blue filter was used.
An omnidirectional Norsonic Nor270 loudspeaker was
the sound source. A two-channel Larson•Davis 2900
analyser with ½" microphones was used as the sound
input into the Dirac system.
Measurements were carried out over two days. During
the measurements air temperature and relative
humidity were in range of respectively 16.1oC–19.4oC
and 27.4%–34.7%.
The measurements were performed for two sound
source locations on the stage and six microphone
locations (fig. 1).

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Figure 1: Sound source (S) and microphones (R) locations and seating area.

The measuring microphones were spaced at every The armchairs have upholstered seats and backrests.
3.80 m along a straight line 3.28 m away from the The backrest’s back and the seat’s bottom are made of
hall’s symmetry axis on which also source S2 was 12 mm thick plywood. The armrests are made of solid
located. Measuring point R1 was located at the stage’s wood and varnished. The armchairs are 86 cm high and
edge at a distance larger than dmin (according to ISO 54 cm wide.
3380 [3]) from the source while point R5 was located
under the balcony. Point R6 was located symmetrically
to R3 relative to the hall’s longitudinal axis. The 5 Measurements results
microphones were set up 1.2 m above the floor.
During the measurements only a three-member 5.1 Reverberation time
measuring team was present in the Lecture Theatre.
Reverberation time T30 for octave bands in a range of
125…4000 Hz for the particular configurations of
4 Seating arrangements source and receiver locations were determined using
the Dirac software. Then the average reverberation
Reverberation time measurements were carried out in time for the particular seating arrangements was
the Lecture Theatre with 72 armchairs (in 3-armchair determined.
sets) inside. The armchairs were arranged in six rows
with 12 armchairs in each row. The measurements
8,0
were performed for different spacings d between the
%
rows when the armchairs’ seats were down (and 6,0
unoccupied) and up.
The measurements were carried out for inter-row 4,0
spacing d equal to 65 cm, 80 cm, 95 cm, 110 cm,
125 cm and 140 cm. For closed seats, measurements 2,0
were carried out also at a narrow inter-row spacing of
50 cm (which was not done for open seats). 0,0
Measurements were also performed for d = 200 cm 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000
assuming the particular rows to be independent
acoustic structures.
Figure 2: Reverberation time RSD for particular
A sketch of the seating area for d = 95 cm and an seating arrangements: heavy broken line – average
outline of the seating area for d = 200 cm are shown in RSD for all seating arrangements, heavy solid line –
fig. 1. RSD for empty Lecture Theatre.

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Fig 2. shows the relative standard deviation (RSD) for being the largest at 500 Hz. The size of this inclination
the particular inter-row spacings, calculated by corresponds to a change in the hall’s reverberation time
dividing RSD by the reverberation time average. by about 0.03 s when the inter-row spacing is changed
The heavy solid line and the heavy broken line by 0.5 m.
represent respectively RSD for the empty Lecture The obtained results are determined by ratio of the
Theatre and the RSD averaged for all the arrangements armchairs acoustic absorption to total absorption of the
of armchairs with both open and closed seats. hall.
RSD decreases as frequency increases from 5.5% at
125 Hz to 2% at 4 kHz. In 250, 500 and 1000 Hz bands 5.2 Armchairs absorption power
RSD for the empty hall is higher than the average for
the seating arrangements. In order to make the measurement results independent
The highest RSD for the empty hall occurs at 250 Hz, of the hall’s influence they were referred to the
which indicates poorer sound field diffusivity in this reverberation time of the empty hall.
frequency band.
Reverberation time versus inter-row spacing at the 1,1
∆ A [m2] 125
particular frequencies for the armchairs with their seats 1,0
respectively down and up is shown in fig. 3. 250
0,9
500
2,0 0,8
125 1000
1,9
0,7
1,8 250 2000
seat dow n
1,7 0,6 4000
500
seat dow n
1,6 0,5
1000
1,5 65 80 95 110 125 140 d[cm] 200
1,4 2000
1,3 1,0
4000 ∆ A [m2]
0,9 125
1,2
65 80 95 110 125 140 155 170 185 200 0,8 250

0,7 500
2,2
125 0,6 1000
2,0 0,5 2000
250
seat up 0,4 4000
1,8 500 seat up
0,3
1,6 1000 50 65 80 95 110 125 140 d[cm] 200
2000
1,4
4000
Fig. 4. Absorbing power per single armchair (minus
1,2
absorbing power of floor without armchair) for
different inter-row spacings.
50 65 80 95 110 125 140 155 170 185 200

Since the effects of changes in air temperature and

Fig. 3. Reverberation time versus inter-row spacing at
particular frequencies for armchair seats in down and
up positions.
The hall’s reverberation time as the inter-row spacing
was changed from the narrowest one (at which the
rows almost touched each other) to a spacing of 2 m (at
which the individual rows could be considered as
separate acoustical systems) ranged from 0.11 s at
500 Hz to 0.03 s at 4 kHz. The reverberation time–
interrow spacing relation shows negative inclination,
humidity during the measurements were insignificant,
the increase in the absorbing power of the hall with
armchairs in relation to the empty hall, referred to the
number of seats, was calculated from this formula
0.161 ⋅ V  1 1
∆Ad =  −  (1)
N  Td T0 
where V is the room’s volume, N – the number of
seats, Td and T0 are reverberation times for respectively
inter-row spacing d and the empty hall. ∆Ad is the

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difference between the absorbing power of a single
armchair and the absorbing power of the part of floor
occupied by this armchair. Since the floor’s absorbing
power is much lower than that of the armchair, it can
be neglected in the first approximation. Fig. 4. shows
∆A calculated on the basis of measurements performed
for the particular inter-row spacings. The plots are
quite irregular but the general trend is that ∆A increases
with spacing d. In most cases, ∆A grows the fastest at
low values of d and then stabilizes. At some
frequencies, particularly at 500 Hz, ∆A values at
narrower spacings are higher than, for example, at a
spacing of 200 cm.
5.3 Absorption coefficient
The armchairs absorbing power values referred to the
area occupied by a block of armchairs are shown in
fig. 5.
Since the absorption coefficient of parquet on concrete
is in a range of 0.06±0.02 [5], the calculated absorbing
power values can be considered as the armchairs’ α
determined with a slight surplus.
As fig. 5 shows, the armchairs’ absorption coefficient
rapidly decreases as the spacing between rows
increases. For narrower spacings d the values of this
coefficient are much higher than 1, particularly at 250
and 500 Hz. This is probably due to the fact that the
full sound field diffusivity condition was not satisfied.
Also the adopted reference surface was a significant
contributing factor. The enlargement of the area
occupied by armchairs with the addition of a strip of a
specified width is an attempt to take into account the
absorption by the vertical borders of a block of
armchairs (a three-dimensional solid). The strip’s
width would be equal to the height of the armchairs h if
sound absorption by the block’s top surface was the
same as by its side surfaces.

1,75 1,8
seat dow n seat dow n
125 1,6
1,50
250 1,4 h= 0
1,25
500 1,2
h = 0,50
1,00 1000
1,0
2000 h = 0,86
0,75 0,8
4000
0,50 0,6 A (1 chair)
50 65 80 95 110 125 140 200
0,4
65 80 95 110 125 140 155 170 185 200
1,75
seat up
1,50 1,8
seat up
1,6
1,25 125
250 1,4 h= 0
1,00
500 1,2
h = 0,50
0,75 1000 1,0
2000 h = 0,86
0,50 0,8
4000
0,25 0,6 A (1 chair)
50 65 80 95 110 125 140 200 0,4
50 65 80 95 110 125 140 155 170 185 200

Fig. 5. Absorbing power referred to surface area,

without correction for floor absorption coefficient. Fig. 6. Sound absorption coefficient for different
widths of strip surrounding block of armchairs and
Block of armchairs area S was adopted as the sum of absorbing power of single armchair. Values averaged
the areas under the armchairs and the area of a 0.5 m over 500…4000 Hz band.
strip around the block of armchairs [1,4].
Fig. 6 shows absorption coefficients calculated for
0.161 ⋅ V 1 1
αd − α f =  −  (2) different values of h (h = 0.86 m is equal to the height
S  Td T0  of the measured armchairs). The graphs were drawn on
the basis of the average increments in sound absorption

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in a 500…4000 Hz band. As a result of averaging they
became more smooth in comparison with the ones
shown for the particular frequencies in fig. 5. Also
sound absorption per single armchair, averaged over a
500…4000 Hz band, has been plotted.
6 Conclusions
In the measurements the number of armchairs was
constant. As the spacing between rows was increased,
the area occupied by the armchairs proportionally
increased, whereby seating density, expressed as a ratio
of the number of armchairs to the surface area occupied
by them, proportionally decreased.
In these conditions it was observed that as the spacing
between rows was increased, reverberation time
decreased (this change can be regarded as insignificant
within an interval of 80…140 cm). This was probably
due to the fact that the number of armchairs under
investigation amounted to less than 15% of the
maximum number of armchairs allotted to the Lecture
Theatre. Therefore the sound absorption by the
armchairs represented only a small fraction of the
hall’s total acoustic absorption.
In order to become independent of the investigated
sample of armchairs, the measurement results were
analysed in terms of an increase in hall acoustic
absorption referred to the number of armchairs (the
absorbing power of a single armchair) and to the
surface area of a block of armchairs (the sound
absorption coefficient).
The above analysis showed the results of the inter-row
spacing effect measurements performed in the Lecture
Theatre with a total capacity of about 4000 m3 to be in
agreement with those of the tests carried out in the
reverberation chamber [2]. The absorbing power of a
single armchair increases with the spacing between
rows while the absorption coefficient decreases as the
area occupied by armchairs increases faster than
acoustic absorption.
As regards the effect of seat spacing density on hall
reverberation time, one can say that if seats are spaced
out over the same surface area (which entails a
reduction in the number of seats in the hall),
reverberation time will decrease. For a constant surface
area, an increase in inter-row spacing will result in a
lower absorption coefficient. The absorbing power of a
block of armchairs, being the product of the surface
area and the absorption coefficient, will also decrease.
As a result, the hall’s reverberation time will decrease
– the decrease will be the larger, the larger is the share
of absorption by the armchairs in the total acoustic
absorption.
As expected, sound absorption by armchairs with their
seats up was smaller than for the armchairs with their
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seats down. An inverse relation was observed only at a
frequency of 250 Hz and a spacing of 65 cm. The value
of the armchairs’ absorption coefficient at high spacing
densities clearly exceeded 1, but it largely depends on
the width of the surface area of the strip surrounding
the block of armchairs, taken into account when
calculating the absorption coefficient. The width of the
strip, and so the calculated value of the absorption
coefficient, is arbitrary. The width of 0.5 m adopted by
Beranek was based on a statistical analysis of the
results of sound absorption measurements performed in
many halls. Other researchers propose to include sound
absorption by the vertical surfaces of a block of seats
by taking into account the block’s circumference or by
covering the side surfaces of the seats [6,7]. But such
ways are more suitable for reverberation chambers and
regular blocks of seats. A method of determining sound
absorption by the side surfaces of seats for larger
rooms and irregular blocks of seats is proposed in [8].
References
[1] L.L. Beranek, ‘Concert and Opera Halls: How
They Sound’, p. 621, Acoustical Society of
America, Woodbury, ISBN-1-56396-530-5 (1996)
[2] W.J. Davies, R.J. Orlowski, Y.W. Lam,
‘Measuring auditorium seat absorption’,
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol.96 No.2. pp 879-888
(1994)
[3] ISO 3382:1997, Acoustics – Measurement of the
reverberation time of rooms with reference to
other acoustical parameters
[4] L.L. Beranek, ‘Audience and seat absorption in
large Halls’, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol.32 No.6. pp
661-670 (1960)
[5] http://www.ptb.de/en/org/1/_index.htm
[6] J.S. Bradley, ‘Predicting theater chair absorption
from reverberation chamber measurements’ J.
Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol.91 No.3. pp. 1514-1524
(1992)
[7] U. Kath, W. Kuhl, ‘Einfluss von Streufläche und
Hallraumdimensionen auf den gemessen
Schallabsorptionsgrad’, Acustica, Vol.11 pp. 50-64
(1964)
[8] K. Rudno-Rudzinski, ‘Measurements of sound
absorption by chairs in Wroclaw University of
Technology’s Lecture Theatre’ (in Polish), Report
No. S-026/05 Wroclaw University of Technology,
Institute of Telecommunication, Teleinformatics
and Acoustics, Wroclaw 2005