The article presents the approach to the design process of acoustic panels based on the scientific research. This approach is based on combining the technical and the design competences to develop the innovative product value for the concept of acoustic panels. The article presents the concepts of two new acoustic panels – an absorbing and scattering panel and a panel reflecting sound waves. The first part of the article presents the starting point for the presented project – the acoustic research and the inspiration for both types of presented solutions. Next, the materials possible to use were discussed, which could reproduce the natural acoustic properties of the lava and glacier caves. The next part presents consecutive stages of the product development in a modern form, ensuring the expected acoustic properties. The last part of the article presents a fully functional solution and proposes further research and development directions.

There are typically two systems in use for sound reinforcement in open areas: the central, “wall of sound” system with speakers localized at the sides of the stage, and the zone system, in which additional speakers are introduced to obtain a uniform sound pressure level throughout the area of listening. In the past two decades the line array systems gained great popularity. The main purpose of their use is to obtain a uniformly distributed sound level throughout the listening area in order to achieve good speech intelligibility. The present paper aims to present an alternative and original method of sound reinforcement in open areas which is in contrast to the above solutions. This new method allows achieving a uniformly distributed sound pressure and good speech intelligibility in the area of interest, and also allows to gain spatial sound impression that accompanies sound reproduction in concert halls. Another advantage of the proposed system is the reduction of the sound level outside the area of interest, i.e. reduction of the noise level outside the area of listening.

The area of environmental protection concern minimises the impact that technical objects have on the environment. Usually the most effective way of protecting the environment is to influence the source of the problem. For this reason studies are conducted to modify the construction of machines, power machines in particular, so as to minimise their impact on the environment.

In the case of environmental protection from noise it is most convenient to carry out measurements in an anechoic chamber. Unfortunately, this is possible only in very limited circumstances. In all other cases measurements are performed using an engineering method or the survey method, both of which are described in the standards and by taking into account the so-called environmental corrections. The obtained results are burdened with greater error than those of measurements in an anechoic chamber. Therefore, it would seem advantageous to develop a method of obtaining similar and reliable results as those in an anechoic chamber, but in a reverberant field. The authors decided to use numerical modelling for this purpose.

The main objective of this work is a comprehensive analysis of the numerical model of a laboratory designed for acoustic tests of selected power machines. The geometry of a room comprising an area of analysis is easy to design. The main difficulty in modelling the phenomena occurring in the analysed area can be the lack of knowing the boundary conditions. Therefore, the authors made an attempt to analyse the sensitivity of various acoustic parameters in a room in order to change these boundary conditions depending on the sound absorption coefficient