Sound and Noise in Shopping Malls

Abstract

This study characterizes the interior acoustics in four shopping malls in Portugal (each with a total area from 12,000 to 72,000 m2) by in situ measurements of objective acoustic parameters (reverberation time RT, LAeq background noise levels and Rapid Speech Transmission Index RASTI) with and without occupation (in corridors and food courts), comparing those with proposed ideal values and basically evaluating the influence that the rooms surrounding features have on the measured results. Results show average RT values between 1.7 and 3.2 s and LAeq (with occupancy) between 67 and 70 dB.