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Design
Salients
include:
- The
foundation of the anechoic chamber
is constructed within a reinforced concrete retaining wall containing six
tons of sand, supporting a sub-floor system designed to absorb and cancel
ultra-low frequency vibrations.
- The
innermost floor on which the inner chamber is built floats on 40
high-tension steel springs.
- Throughout
the entire structure, no two materials of the same kind come directly in
contact. Because each particular material vibrates at a specific rate and
transfers vibrations in certain frequencies, VFI’s construction is
designed to break up vibrations and prevent their transfer.
- All
surfaces are constructed at oblique angles; no right angles exist inside
the chamber. This ensures the reverb-free, noiseless environment crucial
for TTS applications.
- Eight
feet of high-density, acoustic-grade fiberglass, plus nine inches of
acoustic-grade Celetexâ
are housed in between the outer and inner walls of the structure.
- Two
feet of anechoic wedge Sonexâ
are affixed to every wall and ceiling of the chamber.
- Three
four-inch air spaces separate the walls and sound insulating materials.
Each wall is faced with three inches of sheetrock for a total 1 foot of
sheetrock.
- Sealing
the VFI chamber’s joints and contact points required over five hundred
pounds of acoustic caulking.
- To
silence heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), the VFI chamber
incorporates a five-ton unit that delivers conditioned air through four
hundred feet of ductwork that gradually increases in size and feeds into a
primary baffling system (8 ft x 12 ft x 3 ft), which in turn feeds
conditioned air through one hundred feet of ductwork, into another baffle,
and finally into the chamber. Air returns are similarly constructed. There
is absolutely no detectable noise in the chamber, even when the most
sensitive microphone is held up directly to the vents.
- To
enter the chamber, one must go through two soundproof metal doors weighing
eight hundred pounds each.
Thus,
for scientific work as well as for commercial applications, speech clients can
be assured that VFI’s anechoic chamber and support services are the only
ones in the world capable of delivering truly clean recordings of the human
voice.
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