PRAIRE

Aim
The authors found, that most room acoustics related research presents only selected evaluations, but not raw data. This makes any re-evaluations, verifications, consensual statements questionable or impossible to reproduce.
There are already impulse responses available to download (a nice collection is found here ), but those seem not diverse or extensive enough.

Method
Results of actual measurements of impulse responses taken by professional consultants is collected anonymously.
In order to be able to evaluate raw data, responses are not processed besides deconvolution and cropping. Description of measurement conditions and positions are provided in an Excel sheet.

Notes & Explanation:
Only the most basic, room acoustically relevant information is given:
- type of room (e.g. classroom, concert, event, theatre etc.)
- characteristic length, width and height of the room
- floor area (if it is not L*W)
- volume (if it is not L*W*H or not floor*H)
- characteristic shape of room (e.g. shoebox, soap, fan, reverse fan, ellipsoid, etc.)
- description of measurement positions (source and receiver),
- type of sound source (e.g. "omni", "small2way" etc.)
- type of receiver (e.g. "W" or "M" is omnidirectional, "X" is longitudinal dipole, "S" or "Y" and "Z" are dipoles along width and height respectively, "L" and "R" are dummy-head binaural data, "WXYZ" is FuMa-B format)
- coupled spaces and complex shapes using "room:reference:x, y, z" fields: if the floor plan is complex, it can still be approximated using rectangles for representation; a reference can tell, where the reference of the given rectangle is; rectangles not overlapping or touching denote weakly coupled spaces; if not given, a 0;0;0 reference is default
- sizes and positions are given in meter; length is along X, width is along Y, height is along Z
- axes of source and receiver positions are given in unit length vectors

Optional information can be added for more detailed attributes:
- method of measurement
- method of processing
- short description of the room (e.g. "reflective walls", "baffle absorber on ceiling" etc.)
- number and type (size, upholstering, mounting) of seats
- type and orientation of source
- ...

Please note:
- levels might be normalized for groups, but measurements of the same source should represent relative levels at receiver positions faithfully
- timing of direct sound can be constant for open loop measurements, where source-receiver distances can be used to correct relative timing if necessary
- ambient conditions assume normal room conditions (20...25°C temperature, 40...60% relative humidity, 101kPa ambient pressure) if not stated otherwise
- besides the usual averaging, measured impulse responses shall be not processed (removal of noise & distortion, correction of loudspeaker response, etc.) if not stated otherwise
- only responses from single and small sized sound sources are collected (responses from large or multiple sound sources are excluded)

Contribution
New measurement results will be added occasionally upon receiving data from contributors. If you are interested in sending your own data, please prepare your data (use same naming and description conventions) and contact us.
Also, in case a measurement set seems incomprehensible (perhaps erroneous), please let us know.

MIT License (PRAIRE data usage)
Copyright 2023 TU Budapest
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The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
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