Glossary

Acoustic boards – is a special type board made of sound absorbing materials. Their job is to provide sound insulation. Between two outer walls sound absorbing material is inserted and the wall is porous. Thus, when sound passes through an acoustic board, the intensity of sound is decreased. They are used in auditoriums, halls, seminar rooms, libraries, courts and wherever sound insulation is needed.

Acoustical engineering – is the branch of engineering dealing with sound and vibration. It is closely related to acoustics, the science of sound and vibration.

Architectural acoustics – is the science of controlling sound within buildings. The first application of architectural acoustics was in the design of opera houses and then concert halls. Architectural acoustics includes room acoustics, the design of recording and broadcast studios, home theaters, and listening rooms for media playback.

Inter-space noise control – The science of limiting and/or controlling noise transmission from one building space to another to ensure space functionality and speech privacy. An example would be providing suitable party wall design in an apartment complex to minimize the mutual disturbance due to noise by residents in adjacent apartments.

Interior space acoustics – This is the science of controlling a room's surfaces based on sound absorbing and reflecting properties. Excessive reverberation time, which can be calculated, can lead to poor speech intelligibility.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) – Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. LEED certified buildings use key resources more efficiently when compared to conventional buildings which are simply built to code.

Noise control – is an active or passive means of reducing sound emissions, often brought about by personal comfort, environmental considerations or legal compliance.

Noise reduction coefficient (NRC) – is a scalar representation of the amount of sound energy absorbed upon striking a particular surface. An NRC of 0 indicates perfect reflection; an NRC of 1 indicates perfect absorption.

Room acoustics – describes how sound behaves in an enclosed space.

Sound absorption refers to the absorption of sound waves by a material. The absorption is the "missing piece", when comparing the total reflected and transmitted energy with the incident energy.

Soundproofing – is any means of reducing the sound pressure with respect to a specified sound source and receptor. There are several basic approaches to reducing sound: increasing the distance between source and receiver, using noise barriers to block or absorb the energy of the sound waves, using damping structures such as sound baffles, or using active anti-noise sound generators.