Audio is described in many different ways. It can be echo-y, or hollow, or thin, or “like a middle school gymnasium”. One thing is for sure, we know when it’s bad. If users can’t be understood, or if meetings can’t last more than 10 minutes without users getting fatigued attempting to discern the meaning of the poor audio in the space, we have an issue. There are many ways to assure system audio is designed and setup correctly, but how do you verify if the system is intelligible.

Enter the STIPA intelligibility test.

In this session, we will put STIPA to the test. Not only will we discuss measuring intelligibility and how to perform STIPA testing, we’ll also put it to use. The local PA system will be measured to see how well it is distributing audio to the room. And for funsies, we’ll also measure the effects of various presentation etiquette faux pas (microphone placement, speech level, etc.) and how they affect the way we communicate. Users will walk away with knowledge of measuring intelligibility, when and how to measure STIPA, what tolerances should be allowed in their systems, and some fun, anecdotal testing results detailing how users, system design, and room contributions impact the way we communicate.