Predicting and auralizing acoustics in classrooms

Although classrooms have fairly simple geometries, this type of room is known to cause problems when trying to predict their acoustics using room acoustics computer modeling. Some typical features from a room acoustics point of view are: Parallel walls, low ceilings (the rooms are flat), uneven distribution of absorption, and most of the floor being covered with furniture which at long distances act as scattering elements, and at short distance provide strong specular components. The importance of diffraction and scattering is illustrated in numbers and by means of auralization, using ODEON 8 Beta