Page 10 - Winter 2011

FROM THE EDITOR
Dick Stern
Applied Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University State College, Pennsylvania
First and foremost, I thank the five authors for their excellent articles. Second, I thank Marshall Long for dedicating his time and effort to do a real editor’s job of working with me and the individual authors to produce a truly comprehensive, architectural acoustics issue. Finally, I thank the potential guest editors and their author-colleagues for considering the production of an issue of Acoustics Today.
Dick Stern
FROM THE GUEST EDITOR
This issue features the topic of architectural acoustics. In assembling the articles, I tried to select authors and subjects that broadly illustrate the many sides of this fascinating field.
Larry Kirkegaard and Tim Gulsrud’s article describes interesting aspects of concert hall acoustics includ- ing the little known side of fixing prob- lems in existing halls after they have been constructed. Many halls have undergone these delicate “space lifts” as part of post construction makeovers.
David Griesinger’s thoughtful
treatment of the standard descriptive
metrics for concert hall design speaks
to our ability not only to develop
meaningful descriptors but also questions whether we can scale design parameters to different sized auditoria. He argues that smaller halls should have different overall shapes in order to give the best results.
Russ Berger’s article treats a highly important side of architectural acoustics, church design. Large churches, par- ticularly in the south and west, have become major gathering
points for worshipers. The conversion of sports arenas into mega churches is not uncommon and presents its own set of challenges. Russ has cleverly addressed the low frequency absorption problems in a cost effective manner.
Neil Shaw’s article on Knudsen takes us back to the early days of acoustical consulting and indeed the history of the Society. Knudsen, along with Wallace Waterfall and Floyd Watson, was one of the original founders of the Acoustical Society and Neil’s access to Knudsen’s family archives give us invaluable insights to his early career.
My own article deals with sound studios. Often we are confronted by challenges or existing conditions including exterior noise and
limitations due to structural and budgetary concerns.
I appreciate the opportunity to guest edit this issue and the contributions of the talented engineers who have submit-
ted articles. Marshall Long
6 Acoustics Today, January 2011