A Study of Low Frequency Sound Propagation through Listeners.

Authors: Shabalina, Elena; Kaiser, Mathias; Vorländer, Michael
Publication Date: 21.03.2011
Permalink: pub.dega-akustik.de/DAGA_2011/data/articles/000222.pdf

Abstract:
It's become common lately to use distributed arrays of subwoofers for large outdoor concerts or festivals. Subwoofers are placed in a row on the ground in front of the staged, and delays are used to control the directivity of the array. This technique helps to create an even sound pressure level distribution over the listening area, but it's not clear how the presence of the listeners influences the sound propagation. The paper presents the first steps made to study the low frequency sound propagation through large crowds. A crowd of people is a complicated inhomogeneous medium, where additional absorption or scattering between single objects can take place; several ways to approach the problem were tried and are presented in the paper: scale measurements, live measurements and simulation.