Geometrical acoustic simulation of open-air ancient theatres: Investigation on the appropriate objective parameters for improved accuracy

Abstract

Open-air theatres are considered unconventional environments for acoustic simulations: they usually do not preserve the scenae and are only characterised by the cavea and the orchestra, which lead to very few important reflections. There is still debate on the most suitable parameters to be used for the model calibration according to measured data. In this study the model of the ancient theatre of Syracusae has been simulated with a geometrical acoustic-based software, Odeon (vl3.2). In particular this work aims to investigate whether G (Strength) and DRR (Direct-to-Reverberant Ratio) could be considered as suitable parameters to be used for the calibration of measured data and to test the design of new scenarios.