Diffuse Seminars
RPG® is now offering regular educational Diffuse Seminars for acousticians, sound contractors, home theater system integrators, architects, and other specifying consultants to apprise the industry of our research, new products, application assistance, and an introduction to RPG®'s new Room Optimizer™, Shape Optimizer, and CATT Acoustics software.

The June Diffuse Seminar included Doug Mack, Architectural Masonry Products, St. Clair, MI; Mark Simoni and David Schafer, Simoni Systems, Bay City, MI; Richard A. Kolano and Jeff Kleckner, Kolano & Saha Engineers, Inc., Waterford, MI; Donald N. Huggins, Geiger & Hamme, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI; Gaines Hall and Paul Calamia, R. Lawrence & Associates, Chicago, IL.

The July Diffuse Seminar included Joe Dietrich, Contract Associates, Atlanta, GA; Carl Peterman, Newcomb & Boyd; Michael Hedden, Atlanta, GA; Alex Marash, CDAI, Atlanta, GA; Don Bigler, Modern Interiors, Compton, CA; Greg Schroeder, Wisconsin Architectural Supply, Brookfield, WI ; Sam Ott, SpecSource, Phoneixville, PA; Gordon Hoffman, PA; Tony Handley, International Acoustics Corporation, North Miami, FL; Kurt Handley, International Acoustics Corporation, Orlando, FL; Gary Siebein, Gainsville, FL; Martin Gold, Gainsville, FL; Dave Fagen, Tampa, FL; Claude Venet, Archicoustics, Miami, FL; M. Sturgeon, FL; Tom Norton and Kay Reinholdt, Kinetics West, Littleton, CO; Bill Warren, Warco, Charlotte, NC, F. Tomlinson, Charlotte, NC.

We encourage anyone interested in learning more about architectural acoustics to attend. For more information, contact RPG® at info@rpginc.com or 301-249-0044.

RPG®'s OptiCurve™ Further Expands the Acoustical Palette
In an effort to offer a broader range of aesthetic diffusive shapes to expand the acoustical palette, RPG® developed the first reverse engineering software called the Shape Optimizer. This revolutionary proprietary software allows RPG® to acoustically optimize a wide range of shapes including curves, steps, and fractals. If the shape can be expressed mathematically, then it can be optimized. Given a desired shape, size, and acoustical performance, RPG® can now provide optimized and customized diffusors. The CHAOS program was developed to allow collaboration with the design team.

Curves have traditionally been a very popular shape. The number of OptiCurve™ installations is growing rapidly. Cinerama's OptiCurve™ ceiling was a milestone in cinema exhibition venues. We illustrate here the first recording studio OptiCurve™, which was created for studio designer Chris Pelonis of Pelonis Sound & Acoustics, Santa Barbara, CA for Carlos Castro's Perfection in Audio facility in Studio City, CA. The OptiWaves™ were fabricated in clear coated red oak and were utilized in a modernistic diffusive ceiling treatment.

RPG®'s DigiWave™ Expands the Acoustical Palette for Sony Music's M1 Mastering



Above: Diffractal® rear wall at Sony Music's M1 Mastering room. Neil Grant is seated on the left collecting TEF measurements to commission the room. Mastering engineer Vlado Weller is seated on the right. Top left and right: DigiWave™ side wall and floating ceiling at Sony Music M1 Mastering room.

Sony Music selected veteran studio designer Neil Grant of Harris Grant Associates to redesign M1, their main mastering room. M1 has had a remarkable history of turning out an incredible list of hits by Vlado Weller for artists ranging from Mariah Carey to Barbra Streisand to the Chili Peppers to K'eb Mo'. Neil Grant chose RPG®'s new DigiWaves™ for wall and ceiling surfaces and the Diffractal® for the rear wall. The new DigiWaves™ provide an exciting contemporary appearance and incorporate RPG®'s new optimized digital acoustic technology for this landmark facility.

Room Optimizer™
RPG®’s Room Optimizer™ has been nominated for a Mix Magazine TEC Award for new software. We are very proud of this honor and encourage our friends and users to support the program with your ballot in the August issue.

The Room Optimizer™ is the first automated program that determines the optimum location for loudspeakers, listener, and acoustical surface treatment material. It accomplishes this by coupling a geometrical acoustics image model with an intelligent search engine to simultaneously minimize the speaker-boundary interference and the modal response.

Also of note: The Room Optimizer™ has been reduced in price to $99.99, so don’t delay, find out what proper location of your loudspeakers and listening position can mean to the sound in your room.

A review in Mix Magazine (June 1999) by Chris Pelonis describes the benefits of the first automated listener and loudspeaker placement program: “Retailing at $99.99, RPG®’s Room Optimizer™ is a highly useful tool for acoustically orienting a listening environment.”