Designing an auditory lab including active acoustics

LIVELab, a new facility at McMaster University, has been developed in order to help support research in areas such as developing intelligent hearing aids, measuring the physiological impact of media presentations, understanding interactions between musicians, and determining effective sounds for medical and warning systems. This room combines a quiet performance space featuring a low nominal reverberation time with technology including active acoustics, multichannel playback, and integral measurement and instrumentation to create a sonically flexible facility for auditory research. The design of the room and its acoustic variability for supporting these research endeavors will be discussed.