Directional measurement of airborne sound transmission paths using a spherical microphone array

A spherical microphone array has been used to perform directional measurements of airborne sound transmission between rooms. With a source and array on opposite sides of a wall, omnidirectional impulse responses were measured to each of the array microphones. Beamforming resulted in a set of directional impulse responses, which were analyzed to find the distribution of arriving sound energy at the array position during various time ranges. Weak spots in the separating wall are indicated as directions of increased arriving sound energy. The system was able to identify minor defects in a test wall in between two reverberation chambers, and also to identify leaks in the wall of an actual meeting room.On a utilis\ue9 un agencement de microphones sph\ue9riques dans le but de r\ue9aliser des mesures directionnelles de la transmission des bruits par voie a\ue9rienne entre des pi\ue8ces. Une source sonore et l?agencement de microphones ayant \ue9t\ue9 plac\ue9s respectivement de part et d?autre d?un mur, les r\ue9ponses en impulsion omnidirectionnelles ont \ue9t\ue9 mesur\ue9es \ue0 chacun des microphones de l?agencement. La formation de faisceau a g\ue9n\ue9r\ue9 un ensemble de r\ue9ponses en impulsion directionnelles, que l?on a ensuite analys\ue9es afin d?identifier la distribution de l?\ue9nergie acoustique arrivant \ue0 la position de l?agencement, durant diverses plages de temps. Les points faibles dans le mur de s\ue9paration sont indiqu\ue9s en tant que directions de l?\ue9nergie acoustique accrue \ue0 l?arriv\ue9e. Le syst\ue8me a \ue9t\ue9 capable de d\ue9tecter des d\ue9fauts mineurs dans un mur d?essai entre deux salles de r\ue9verb\ue9ration et \ue9galement d?identifier des fuites dans le mur d?une salle de r\ue9union r\ue9elle.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye