Soundscapes of Justice, Trial Courtrooms

摘要

Acoustic performance of trial courtrooms, in the United States, is defined for federalrncourtrooms via the P-100 document and US Courts Design Guide, but there are no acousticrnperformance standards for county courtrooms. It is reasoned that county courtroomrnacoustic performance may be less than adequate due to the non-existent acoustic standards.rnExtensive acoustic research on classrooms has established that ALL occupants shouldrnreceive equal acoustic performance at all receiver locations. Accordingly, there is a needrnfor similar acoustic performance for the occupants in county and federal trial courtrooms.rnSoundscape Theory approach was applied in order to determine the appropriaternmethodologies and selected measurement techniques. Twelve courtrooms (4 federal, 4rncounty and 4 historic) located in Central Florida, were evaluated for Room Criteria, NoisernIsolation Class, Reverberation Time and Speech Intelligibility Index. The results of thernstudy indicate the acoustic performance for federal and county courtrooms is similarrnregardless of age or volume with low RC and NIC values. Although the RT valuesrnincreased (beyond 1 second) as room volume increased, the desired STI values were withinrnthe desired acoustic performance range. This research indicates there is a need forrnstandardized field measurement procedures and further refinement of the preferredrnacoustic performance standards that can be applied to justice occupancies.