The acoustics and speech intelligibility quality of Kampung Laut Mosque, Kota Bharu,Kelantan

Abstract

Kampung Laut Mosque, Kota Bharu, Kelantan is of fully timber structure, built hundred years ago said to be the oldest mosque in Malaysia. The mosque currently situated at its present site in Nilam Puri, Kelantan located in Malaysia. The mosque basically is a square plan with three tier pyramid roofs. The top most is considerably high where there is a clerestory window. The acoustics and speech intelligibility quality of this mosque was analyze. The analysis of acoustics quality include mosque dimension, Reverberation Time (RT60), speech level distribution inside and speech intelligibilit quality. It is important to have good speech intelligibility as heard by congregations when 'khutbah' or sermon is performed which is very related to the RT60 of this mosque. Speech propagation analysis inside the mosque was done using ray tracing technique as well as sound pressure level analysis. Speech intelligibility is predicted based on speech propagation and acoustics analysis. Reverberation time (RT60) calculated was compared to guidelines and standard available. It was found out that Kampung Laut Mosque posses good RT60, thus good speech intelligibility. As such, this study resolved the issue that the acoustics of this mosque was really good and somehow was in the idea of this mosque's designer hundred years ago.