IMPROVING THE SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY IN AN AIR-TRFFIC CONTROL ROOM

Poor speech intelligibility in an air traffic control room is frequently a result of many, quite different causes and occasionally leads to complaints of the controller personnel. The paper describes a sequence of successful tasks performed in a local control room. The initial measurements included an investigation of the background noise (caused by fans, air condition, computer and radar equipment) and performance checks of the electronic audio and communication equipment with respect to the audio transmission behavior. The spectral composition of the noise as well as the characteristics of the audio communication path between the controllers and the pilots(which showed a loss of spectral information in the audio band due to built-in notch filters for the suppression of control tones) required adaptations of the amplitude behavior of the amplifiers through user adjustable tone controls. The radar console fans, which contributed significantly to the overall noise floor of the room, underwent a substantial reconstruction by replacing the tight mounting with an elastic double suspension, reducing the noise level by 50%. Finally, a possible source of untimely fatigue of the controllers during their working hours has been found in strong spectral components of the noise above the audio band, radiated by numerous video monitors in the control through vibrating components excited by the line frequency of the video signal.