The signal-to-noise ratio for speech intelligibility-An auditorium acoustics design index

The Signal-to-Noise Ratio devised by Lochner and Burger contributed an objective design index for predicting speech intelligibility. Their index provided a measure of useful and detrimental reflected speech energy according to the integration and masking characteristics of hearing, and enabled predictions to be made from impulse measurements in models. However, it was found necessary to extend the Signal-to-Noise Ratio theory to account for the effect of fluctuating ambient background noise on speech intelligibility. A modified Signal-to-Noise Ratio was derived from a best-fitting empirical correlation with speech intelligibility in a series of measurements in existing auditoria. In the modified Signal-to-Noise Ratio ambient background noise is no longer considered in terms of its steady state characteristics but more specifically in terms of its transient and spectral characteristics given by the concept of the L₁₀ PNC level. The index has been applied as design criteria to prediction and to evaluation techniques. © 1979.