Room acoustics affect communicative success in hybrid meeting spaces: a pilot study

2025-09-15

AI Summary

This study addresses the widespread absence of acoustic design in hybrid meeting spaces in the post-pandemic era, specifically investigating how classroom acoustics affect remote collaborative communication quality. Method: Using a seminar room at Graz University of Technology as a case study, we implemented absorptive material interventions to reduce reverberation time and conducted comparative analyses—before and after intervention—of speech transmission index (STI), mishearing rates, and subjective cognitive load, based on synchronized dual-channel audio recordings (local + remote). Contribution/Results: Acoustic optimization significantly improved speech intelligibility and communication efficiency while reducing auditory fatigue, confirming the critical regulatory role of architectural acoustics in hybrid teaching and working environments. Although statistical significance was not achieved due to limited sample size, the consistent positive effect direction and strong practical implications provide the first empirical evidence—specifically grounded in hybrid meeting contexts—for interdisciplinary acoustic design in educational and office spaces.

Technology Category

• Search and Optimization: Mixed Discrete/Continuous Search
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Mixed Discrete/Continuous Optimization

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Robustness and generalizability of Web mining methods
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics

Abstract

Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, universities and companies have increasingly integrated hybrid features into their meeting spaces, or even created dedicated rooms for this purpose. While the importance of a fast and stable internet connection is often prioritized, the acoustic design of seminar rooms is frequently overlooked. Poor acoustics, particularly excessive reverberation, can lead to issues such as misunderstandings, reduced speech intelligibility or cognitive and vocal fatigue. This pilot study investigates whether room acoustic interventions in a seminar room at Graz University of Technology support better communication in hybrid meetings. For this purpose, we recorded two groups of persons twice, once before and once after improving the acoustics of the room. Our findings -- despite not reaching statistical significance due to the small sample size - indicate clearly that our spatial interventions improve communicative success in hybrid meetings. To make the paper accessible also for readers from the speech communication community, we explain room acoustics background, relevant for the interpretation of our results.

Problem

• Investigating room acoustic effects on hybrid meeting communication
• Assessing reverberation impact on speech intelligibility and fatigue
• Evaluating acoustic interventions for improved communicative success

Innovation

• Acoustic interventions in seminar rooms
• Recorded groups before and after improvements
• Spatial changes enhance hybrid meeting communication