Simulation and Measurement of Sound Beam Forming by Speaker-Array in Room Reverberation Environment

This paper compares the performance of software simulation to an actual measurement of sound beam forming with a multi-channel speaker-array system under room reverberation environment. The sound pressure distribution formed by an 8-channel speakerarray system using a delay-and-sum beam former (DSBF) is investigated. The image method is introduced to simulate reverberation environment in the software. The performance of our implemented speaker-array system is evaluated by measuring sound pressure distribution in a real test room and compared to the software simulation results. The results show that a rough sound beam to desired location can be realized even in reverberation environment, while experimental results also show that the performance of sound beam forming is mainly affected by nature of room impulse response.