Celebrating 40 years of acoustic innovation with ODEON
2025 marks a special occasion at ODEON as we celebrate 40 years of pioneering research and development that led to our room acoustics software. This powerful tool allows for the prediction of acoustic conditions in a space before it is built, solving acoustic challenges already from the design phase. The Odeon team will be participating in the DAS-DAGA 2025 congress in Copenhagen where we will mark this celebration.
An overview of ODEON's journey
The story of ODEON begins with its visionary founder, Jens Holger Rindel, whose dedication to acoustic research at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) contributed to the success of the software. A first research project conducted by Asger Donovan started in June 1985, resulting in the development of a classical ray tracing program. This was followed by another project with Graham Naylor, which introduced a hybrid model incorporating image sources, ray tracing, and scattering.
The starting project was supported both by a technological research fund and a number of Danish consultants. From the very beginning, these consultants were represented in an advisory board, and thus the future users of the software were actively involved in its development. The advantages of this research model were later described in depth in a PhD project (Borup 1991).
From the outset, the motivation behind ODEON was clear: not only should the program provide reliable acoustic predictions in terms of objective data, but it should also enable users to quickly understand the results, through visual indicators and auralisations, i.e. the possibility to listen to sound scenarios within the simulated space.
The story of ODEON begins with its visionary founder, Jens Holger Rindel, whose dedication to acoustic research at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) contributed to the success of the software. A first research project conducted by Asger Donovan started in June 1985, resulting in the development of a classical ray tracing program. This was followed by another project with Graham Naylor, which introduced a hybrid model incorporating image sources, ray tracing, and scattering.
The starting project was supported both by a technological research fund and a number of Danish consultants. From the very beginning, these consultants were represented in an advisory board, and thus the future users of the software were actively involved in its development. The advantages of this research model were later described in depth in a PhD project (Borup 1991).
From the outset, the motivation behind ODEON was clear: not only should the program provide reliable acoustic predictions in terms of objective data, but it should also enable users to quickly understand the results, through visual indicators and auralisations, i.e. the possibility to listen to sound scenarios within the simulated space.
Following the success of these research projects, ODEON I/S was founded in 1990, in collaboration with consulting firms. Since it was not possible for the university to sell the software, a cooperation agreement was established, in which the company would support future development at the university. The first version, ODEON 1.0 was released in 1991, and it already included key results such as decay curves, reflectograms, and grid maps.
The 2001 creation of ODEON A/S saw support from various consulting companies, and in 2008, ODEON A/S moved to Scion DTU, now DTU Science Park. Leadership transitioned in 2012 from Jens Holger Rindel to Claus Lynge Christensen, who continues to steer the company forward. ODEON’s reliability has been consistently proven through international tests, including three notable international Round Robin tests between 1994 and 2002.
A pioneering example is the construction of the Ørestad Gymnasium in Copenhagen in 2007. In this case the entire building model was imported (more than 36 000 surfaces). Auralisations with ODEON at the design stage convinced architects to increase sound absorption in the building. After its completion, the building was praised for its very comfortable acoustics, in spite of an enormous central open space spanning five floors (Rindel 2008).
Innovations and Advancements
ODEON has made significant strides over the years, including:
- 1992: Interface with AutoCAD and release of version 2.0.
- 1993: Introduction of auralisation with hardware, using the M5000 digital audio mainframe from TC Electronic. Auralisation proved to be a great subjective tool to experience the acoustics of a space.
- 1997: Version 3 saw ODEON transition to a Windows program.
- 1999: Release of version 4, featuring “true” auralisation within the software.
- 1992: Interface with AutoCAD and release of version 2.0.
- 1993: Introduction of auralisation with hardware, using the M5000 digital audio mainframe from TC Electronic. Auralisation proved to be a great subjective tool to experience the acoustics of a space.
- 1997: Version 3 saw ODEON transition to a Windows program.
- 1999: Release of version 4, featuring “true” auralisation within the software.
- 2010: Development of the SU2Odeon plugin, making it extremely simple to import 3D models from SketchUp. To this day, this is one of the preferred methods to import geometries into ODEON.
- 2013: Introduction of an impulse response measurement system in version 12, making ODEON a complete room acoustics suite.
- 2015: Release of ODEON 13, including genetic algorithms to adjust material properties using measured room acoustic parameters. This tool has been extensively used to calibrate ODEON models.
- 2021: Release of ODEON 17. This version includes a material calculator that predicts the acoustical properties of elements such as perforated plates, resonators or porous absorbers.
- 2022: Release of Odeon Omni, a portable loudspeaker source especially designed for room acoustics measurements.
- 2023: Release of ODEON 18, allowing efficient import of BIM models in the IFC format.
Notable projects
ODEON has been involved in numerous prestigious projects over the years.
- CAHRISMA (2000-2003): this EU-funded project within Cultural Heritage focused on Byzantine churches and mosques. It is considered a landmark in the field of archaeoacoustics, which involves reconstituting the acoustic conditions of historical sites. In spite of the size and complexity of the studied rooms, 3D models were successfully created in Odeon and showed a good agreement between simulations and measurements.
- ERATO (2003-2006): this cross-disciplinary EU project focused on the acoustics of Roman theatres, including open-air scenarios. One of the outcomes was the combination of visual and acoustical simulations to recreate scenes within the studied theatres.
- Anechoic recordings of an orchestra (2005): these recordings were connected to another EU project called DoReMi, which explored multi-channel auralisations. Musicians from the Sjællands Symfoniorkester were recorded individually in DTU’s anechoic room. Entering each musician as a single source in an ODEON model led to much more realistic auralisations.
Present and future
Today, ODEON boasts over 1000 customers in more than 80 countries. The software has been used in renowned architectural projects, such as the Copenhagen Opera House (Henning Larsen), the Danish Radio Concert Hall (Jean Nouvel) and the Philharmonie de Paris (Jean Nouvel). ODEON’s focus remains on fine-tuning user experience, improving calculation speeds, and developing advanced auralisation tools. Regular communication with users ensures that the software evolves to meet their needs, resulting in high customer satisfaction.
From the beginning, it has been a principle to develop through an open sharing of knowledge. This can be seen in the numerous publications from Odeon researchers over the years, presenting our ideas, sometimes even before they are actually implemented. In 2022 our working methods were the topic of a research project at the University of Oslo (Rise & Sundland 2022).
We are proud to celebrate these four decades of innovation with Odeon and we look forward to many more to come!
References
https://odeon.dk/support/publications/
- Mads Borup (1991). Brugermaterialisering og Lydsimulering. Et studie af teknologiudvikling og teknovidenskabelig forskningspraksis (Danish: User materialisation and Sound Simulation. A study of technology development and techno-scientific practice). Institut for Teknologi og Samfund. Institut for Produktion og Ledelse. Technical University of Denmark.
- J. H. Rindel (2008). Ørestad Gymnasium – akustisk succes med nyskabende åben-plan skole (Danish: Ørestad Gymnasium – acoustic success with innovative open-plan school). Svenska Ljudbladet, nr. 3, 7-9, 2008.
- E. K. T. Rise and M.G. Sundland (2022). Knowledge development and knowledge sharing in expert communities. Master thesis in pedagogy, knowledge development, and work life learning, The Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo.
