Prediction of optimal conditions for verbal-communication quality in eating establishments

This paper discusses the prediction of verbal-communication quality in eating establishments (EEs). EEs contain talkers and listeners who require high speech intelligibility at their tables, and high speech privacy between tables. Using CATT-Acoustic, verbal-communication quality-quantified by speech transmission index (STI)-in models of three existing EEs was predicted. Talker voice-output levels were predicted using an existing empirical model accounting for the Lombard effect. With these, CATT-Acoustic predicted impulse responses, speech levels and noise levels at primary and secondary listener positions, and the corresponding STIs. The untreated EEs were first modeled for various talker and listener positions, and occupancies. Then various treated configurations, involving reduced volume, increased absorption and barriers were studied to determine the effectiveness of the treatments. The results suggest that placing barriers around tables can be an effective way to achieve good verbal-communication quality. Increasing the absorption of the room surfaces or decreasing the ceiling height to control reverberation may not be effective. However, increasing the surface absorption and putting barriers around tables may achieve optimal speech conditions in EEs. Subdividing large EEs into smaller ones can also be effective. (C) 2011 Acoustical Society of America. [DOI: 10.1121/1.3552867]