Reverberation

Reverberation

A sound created in a big hall will persist by repeated reflection from the walls until it is reduced to a value where it is no longer audible. The repeated reflection that results in this persistence of sound is called reverberation. In an auditorium or big hall excessive reverberation is highly undesirable. To reduce reverberation, the roof and walls of the auditorium are generally covered with sound absorbing materials like compressed fiberboard, flannel cloths, rough plaster and draperies. The seat materials are also selected on the basis of their sound absorbing properties.

There is a separate branch in physics called acoustics which takes these aspects of sound in to account while designing auditoria, opera halls, theaters etc.