Course Launches June 1st, 2019.
Registration Open
Course Facts Sheet
Type Online course
Instructor Emad El-Saghir
Maximum number of enrolled students 30
Material available for enrolled students starting 01.06.2019 12:00 CEST
Material available for enrolled students until 31.05.2020 12:00 CEST
Enrollment open? Yes
Enrollment closes on 31.05.2019 18:00 CEST
Estimated completion time of the course For example two week with 12 hours studying time per week
Software license with course material No
Testing Yes
Certification Certificate of Successful Completion
Direct e-mail support until 01.09.2019 00:00 CEST extendable to 01.06.2020 00:00 CEST
The intent of this online course is to offer designers of sound reinforcement systems a comprehensive curriculum in room acoustics, which is, however, tailored to suit their needs, when they deal with sound reinforcement systems.
The course, therefore, focuses on the topics that a sound system designer shall face in his/her renovation and/or new sound reinforcement systems with heavier weight on the applied side of the extensive and fascinating discipline of room acoustics.
Deep theory and analysis are introduced only, when they serve directly the objective of sound reinforcement system design. Mathematical formulas are reduced to minimum to give way in the course to physics concepts behind the properties and behaviors in an efficient and practical approach.
The course material, which includes videos, slides and other documents, shall be available for enrolled students starting 01.06.2019 at 12:00 CEST. The material shall be available for online access for twelve months until 31.05.2020 12:00 CEST.
The students can complete the course at the speed that suits them within this 12-month period.
Upon completion of the course, the students will
1. possess a reasonable level of knowledge about the physics/nature of sound waves,
2. understand the behaviour of sound waves, when propagating indoors and outdoors,
3. understand the characteristics of the human ear that play a major role in sound perception,
4. learn the fundamentals of objects' response to sound waves, and the properties of absorbers, reflectors and diffusors as well as variable room acoustics,
5. know the nature and impact of noise in rooms on sound reinofrcement systems, and
6. learn about the approach to handling acoustics of rooms and the quantitative/qualitative figures used for that.
This course is for the designers of room sound reinforcement, public address and voice alarm systems, who need to have solid, but unnecessarily extensive knowledge about the intemately related field of room acoustics.
It is assumed that the students have a reasonable level of engineering general knowledge and understand the basic definitions and terminology.
Each course student shall have access to direct and personal e-mail support for the course curriculum for ninety days from the day of enrollment or releasing course material online, whichever is later.
During this period, the student can send his/her questions to the instructor, and shall receive an answer from the instructor within 48 hours at latest. The e-mail support can be extended to one year against extra charge.
Testing and Certification
After each lecture, students shall have the chance to take a number of quizzes to test their progress with the course topics.
At the end of the course, there shall be a final set of quizzes to test the students' knowledge of the entire course and how far the met the objectives.
A Certificate of Successful Completion shall be issued to the students, whose overall score based on all quizzes in the course including the final set is 75% or better.
Contact instructor with your questions and comments.
Course Curriculum
1. Fundamentals
1.1 Nature of sound
1.2 Basic definitions
1.3 General characteristics of speech
1.4 General characteristics of music
1.5 Human ear and Hearing process
1.6 Loudness perception
1.7 Localization
1.8 Wave equation
2. Propagation of sound
2.1 Wavefronts
2.2 Spreading loss
2.3 Speed of sound
2.4 Refraction and diffraction
2.5 Influence of air conditions
3. Absorbers
3.1 Mechanisms of absorption
3.2 Absorption coefficients
3.3 Employment of absorption in rooms
3.4 Typical absorbers
4. Reflectors
4.1 Geometrical reflections
4.2 Scattering
4.3 Employment of reflectors in rooms
4.4 Typical reflectors
5. Sound Field
5.1 Direct field
5.2 Diffuse field
5.3 Near field
5.4 Far field
5.5 Free field
6. Noise
6.1 Noise sources and influence of acoustics
6.2 Metrics of noise
6.3 Noise implications
6.4 Overview of noise control
7. Room Acoustics Metrics and their Targets
7.1 Impulse response
7.2 Amplitude response
7.3 Reverberation time
7.4 Clarity measures
7.5 Speech intelligibility
7.6 Echo criteria
8. Acoustical Design Considerations
8.1 Primary structure
8.2 Secondary structure
8.3 Outdoor applications
8.4 Speech venues
8.5 Music venues
8.6 Multi-purpose venues
9. Variable Acoustics
9.1 Why variable acoustics?
9.2 Mechanical approach
9.3 Electronic approach
10. Some Common Room Acoustical Issues
10.1 Lack of early reflections
10.2 Sound concentrating surfaces
10.3 Strong individual reflections
10.4 Shadow zones
10.5 Uncontrolled coupled spaces
11. Working Project
11.1 Objective
11.2 Approach
11.3 Planning
11.4 Assessment and conclusions
Emad El-Saghir earned his Bachelor's degree in electronics and communications engineering in 1992 from Ain-Shams University in Cairo. After working in the Middle East for several years, he left to Germany and earned his Master's degree in Acoustics from Dresden University of Technology in 2003.
Emad possesses an experience of more than 20 years in the industries of room-, electro-acoustics and sound reinforcement systems. He has been participating over these years in numerous projects in the Middle East and Europe including, among others, performing arts venues, landmark worship houses, stadia, universities, airports and museums.
Between 2012 and 2018, Emad was a Senior Consultant with Berlin acoustical consulting office ADA. Earlier between 2003 and 2009, he headed ADA presence in the Middle East.
Since 2018, Emad is the Head of Applications with the German loudspeaker manufacturer HOLOPLOT.