Although the original ACU standard was designed for audio coverage in enclosed environments, the 2017 version expands to cover most listener areas. The performance of a sound system can be characterized by several factors, including coverage uniformity, tonal balance and consistency, gain before feedback and maximum sound pressure level. The ACU standard focuses on the uniformity of coverage of a sound system's early-arriving energy to a listener area. An ideal sound system design allows all listeners to hear reproduced content at approximately the same sound pressure level independent of the listener's position in a designated area. This performance standard provides a procedure to measure and a means to classify the uniformity of coverage.
"The updated standard takes advantage of improved measurement platforms, which will allow the user to gain a much better understanding of exactly how a system is performing, opening the door to providing enhanced user experiences," says Ann Brigida, CTS, CStd, Director of Standards, InfoComm International. "There will be greater consistency in results and reporting, and reduced time in the field taking measurements."
"This is the first rewrite of a standard and we learned a great deal in the process," says Thom Mullins, CTS, moderator for the standard task group and Senior Consultant for Affiliated Engineers Inc. "Our goals were to make the standard easier to implement, to bring the standard up to date with current measurement techniques and systems, to provide a means of quantifying the performance of a room or system that is easy to understand, and to base the standard on solid evidence and understanding of human perception. I believe we've achieved those objectives, and we're looking forward to the industry's response and adoption."
The standard will be available soon at infocomm.org/standards. It's free for members and available for purchase by non-members. In addition, InfoComm will publish a design guide and field guide to help professionals implement the standard.InfoComm is an ANSI Accredited Standards Developer (ASD). More than 700 industry volunteers support InfoComm's standards development, which has resulted in seven ANSI-certified standards, plus a joint standard with the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) governing the use of audio, video, and control architectural drawing symbols. InfoComm International maintains a Standards Steering Committee that provides oversight to the standards development task groups responsible for specific standards. The Standards Steering Committee is the consensus body that reports to the InfoComm International Board of Directors.
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