William C. Ward
WARD Lab., 2441 Camino Capitan, Santa Fe, NM 87505
Gary W. Elko
Robert A. Kubli
AT&T Bell Labs., Murray Hill, NJ 07974
W. Craig McDougald
Acoustic Systems, Austin, TX 78764
Results are available for the first measurements in the recently completed Varechoic chamber, a digitally controllable variable acoustics facility at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ. The 118 m[sup 3] (6.7x6.1x2.9 m) room has 368 independently actuated surfaces in the walls, ceiling, and floor. The room boundary conditions can be completely changed in a fraction of a second. This chamber is a unique facility for acoustical measurements, testing of electroacoustic and signal processing systems, perception tests, or for recording. The panels from which it is constructed could be applied in multipurpose rooms, recording studios, or performance spaces. Reverberation time in the 750-Hz octave band is variable from 0.1--1.6 s; this talk will present full 1/3-oct decay rates of the room. Some interesting impulse responses, and comparisons with image model calculations, will also be given.