A VR walk-through of a CAD model can offer valuable information about the way a building will look before it goes up, but predicting the way sound propagates through the structure isn't so simple. In 1992, Germany's parliament had to evacuate its new building after one day of use because the acoustics were so bad, people could barely hear each other.
In October, the speaker masters at Bose announced a system to help eliminate the guesswork that architects and engineers have grudgingly accepted as part of their job. Based on nine years of research, the system creates acoustical models of buildings based on architectural drawings and simulates the aural qualities of the building-to-be through an audio-playback device called the Auditioner. Speakers placed on either side of the listener's head deliver the sounds.
In tests conducted in existing public spaces, experts couldn't tell the difference between the real and the modeled sounds. Bose: (800) 469 7413, +1 (508) 879 7330.
ELECTRIC WORD
Listening to a Blueprint
