Effect of Noise, System Gain, and Assigned Task on Talking Levels in Loudspeaker Communication

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Abstract
Results of the present study show that the specification of talking levels in vocal communication is meaningful only to the extent that the conditions involved are also specified. This is true for both face-to-face communication and for communication over a two-way loudspeaker system—the latter forming the principal basis of the experimental results to be presented. For this type of communication, the test participants made a relatively small, reversible adjustment of their vocal outputs over a range of system gain from +10 to −40 dB re unity. On the other hand, there was always a unidirectional change (increase) in talking level with increasing noise to effect a compensation within 3 dB of optimum listening level over a noise-level range of 37 dB. The above results were supplemented by repetition-rate data and by appraisals of the degree of acceptability of the communication achieved under various test conditions for participants communicating in pairs over the system (one individual at each terminal). Over all, the data indicate the importance of operating under as favorable a noise condition as possible and the maintenance of system gain (as defined) at, or slightly below, unity for such use of this type of communication facility.

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