The quieter the speech reverberation level becomes, the more each sound bite is revealed and the intelligibility of the hall increases. Only a few sound paths in the sanctuary need to be strongly attenuated to reduce the level of speech reverberation. The first acoustic concern in the sanctuary is the rear wall. Here, a tight pattern of broad band absorption is alternated with diffusion on the upper part of the rear wall. This acoustic blend acts to simultaneously absorb and side-scatter sound reflections off the upper rear wall.
Sound expands away from the overhead loudspeaker equally in almost all directions.
This acoustic energy storage loop serves no useful purpose to the speech emitted from the overhead speaker and is a good candidate for treatment. The rear parts of the side walls need no treatment because sound from the overhead speaker reflects into the absorptive rear wall. The lower half of the side walls have no absorption planning because they reflect sound downward at an angle into the absorptive congregation. Congregations prefer this voicing of the room because the loudspeaker no longer sounds muddy, blurred or difficult to understand. The strength of confusing echoes, as well as the buildup of the reverb field, has been reduced for speech played from the overhead cluster.