The influence of reverberation on multichannel equalization: an experimental comparison between methods

Room equalization is important for delivering high-quality audio in multiple listener environments and for improving speech recognition rates. Lower order equalization filters can be designed at perceptually relevant frequencies through warping. However, one of the major factors that affects multi-channel equalization performance is the reverberation of the room. In this paper, we compare the equalization performance of our method (S. Bharitkar et al., Nov. 2002) to the industry standard root-mean-square (RMS) method, through the image method. It is shown that our method outperforms the RMS method in terms of maintaining a lower spectral deviation, across multiple listener positions, when the reverberation time is increased.