Our solid fiberglass acoustic wall panels contain 61% recycled content with a 0.85 NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient). ADW acoustic panels have a solid, scientifically-designed sound wave-absorbing core.
In contrast, simple wedge and pyramid foam paneling have a NRC value of 0.4. Foam panels allow sound waves to pass through the panel and bounce off the wall. This means more panels on more walls in a room to absorb the bothersome noise and echo.
ADW's use of a solid fiberglass and the sound wave-absorbing core are the reason for the significantly higher sound absorbtion rating of 0.85 as compared to the foam "egg shell" panel's NRC of 0.4.
The coarse woven fabric used to cover the Acoustic Design works fiberglass panels is 100% post-consumer recycled polyester. The fabric is available in many colors. If you do not see the color(s) you are looking for, contact our Customer Service We have access to additional colors and may be to match the color you are seeking.
Our acoustic wall panels are also available in a fine woven fabric made of both pre- and post-consumer recycled polyester. This fabric is available in a variety of colors by special order. Please contact our Customer Service to request swatches and pricing.
The Acoustic Design Works' factory is located in Wisconsin. Each of our fiberglass acoustic panels is made to order in a variety of shapes and colors. You can mix and match colors and shapes to create the sound absorbing wall display to match your room decor.
Give Customer Service a call at 608-782-7577 and we'll help you design your ideal solution.
]]>For many people, the inspiration to research acoustic wall panels comes from one of two polar-opposite experiences:
Whatever the reason, we have some good news: acoustically treating a room or building is easier, more affordable, and more aesthetically pleasing than ever before. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars or waste countless hours studying acoustical engineering to vastly improve the sound quality in your home, business, etc. In most cases, a small investment in acoustic panels will suffice.
In brief, acoustic panels or tiles improve sound through sound-wave absorption.
Under normal circumstances, sound released into an environment travels until it meets resistance, at which point it reflects of any surface it comes into contact with. One commonly used analogy for this? Imagine throwing a racquetball as hard as you can into the wall of a racquetball court and watching it bounce in every direction.
Of course, this is obviously an oversimplification. (Sound disperses in all directions rather than traveling in a straight line, after all.) However, this example serves to illustrate why rooms with lots of hard surfaces tend to be so echoey. It is no coincidence that racquetball courts are so noisy.
Much like a racquetball, sound bounces off harder surfaces more forcefully than it does with soft surfaces. Imagine bringing that same ball into a recording studio covered wall to wall with acoustic tiles and acoustic fabric. No matter how hard you managed to throw, the ball isn’t going to travel nearly as well as it did within the court. Similarly, no matter how loud you may sing, scream, or strike a snare drum, you are not going to hear the unpleasant noise, echo, and reverb as distinctly within a well-treated acoustic space. That’s where acoustical wall panels come in to play.
Many people become interested in improving the acoustic quality in their home, business, or workspace, focus their attention on soundproofing. This term actually refers to the process of acoustically sealing off a room in order to keep sound from entering or leaving the area. Though the practice of soundproofing does have pragmatic purposes (i.e. for a landlord who wants to keep apartment units acoustically separated) it is not going to improve sound quality within your space under most circumstances. It’s also extremely difficult and expensive to truly sound proof a room.
Instead, when you notice that a room is too loud, that the sound within is too unclear, or that an unwanted echo tends to reverberate, your best bet for improving the sound quality is aiming to achieve sound absorption, not soundproofing. In most businesses, churches, home theaters, garages, classrooms, conference spaces, dance halls, recital spaces, and recording studios, installing acoustical surfaces such as wall panels and ceiling tiles will make the biggest difference.
In some cases, both soundproofing and acoustic panel sound absorption techniques are necessary. For example, if you are designing your own musical practice space, you may very well have two distinct yet equally important priorities:
Similar situations sometimes arise for commercial theaters, dance studios, people living in condominiums, and other similar situations. Because soundproofing and sound absorption actually work against each other to a certain degree, such projects require a greater deal of detail and customization.
Excessive bass sounds can also pose a more challenging acoustical room treatment scenario, as a special type of acoustic wall panel known as a bass trap may be necessary. These panels are exceptionally thick compared to normal wall and acoustical ceiling panels, and are optimally placed near ground level and in corners.
*If your acoustics issue needs a helping hand, don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss a customized acoustic design project.
In theory, placing a soft, spongy material and coating it with an aesthetically pleasing fabric sounds relatively easy — which is why home acoustic panel projects are increasing in popularity. Though most made-at-home sound absorption baffles do work to a certain extent, here are a few factors that you may wish to consider before embarking on such a project.
Looking to learn more about room acoustics and affordable sound absorbtion solutions for your home, business, or workspace? View our selection of effective acoustic panels, to read about the solutions we offer, and to get in touch with a knowledgeable representative who can help you find exactly what you need.
]]>In the manufacturing process for acoustic panels, ADW uses fiberglass and fabric.
In other words, our acoustic panels are eco-friendly from top to bottom.
How does this help the environment?
The Noise Reduction Coefficient—aka NRC—is a representation of the decay rate of sound, or how much sound is absorbed by an object or surface, compared to that rate in a standard reverberant room without the object or surface in it. While most often applied to specific materials, such as panels, designed to improve the acoustics of a space, every material can be given an NRC rating, which ranges from 0 to 1.0.
Surface Material | NRC Rating |
Marble | 0.0 |
Drywall | 0.15 |
Foam acoustic panel | 0.4 |
Acoustic Design Works 1" acoustic panel | 0.85 |
Acoustic Design Works 2" acoustic panel | 1.0 |
Marble, for example, has an NRC of 0, meaning it completely reflects back the sound waves that strike it. But 2-inch acoustic panels from Acoustic Design Works, with a fiberglass core and sound transparent fabric covering, have an NRC rating of 1.0, meaning they absorb all of the sound waves that strike them, and when used to cover at least 15-20 percent of a room’s wall space can significantly reduce echo, ambient noise and unwanted reverberation within a space.
Most materials will fall somewhere in between, with the NRC indicating the percentage of sound being absorbed. Our 1-inch acoustic panels, for example, have an NRC rating of 0.85, so while they don’t absorb as much as their 2-inch counterparts, they still absorb 85 percent of the sound striking them, a considerable improvement over the 0.15 NRC of drywall.
In comparison, 1-inch foam acoustic panels may have an NRC of only 0.4 on average, so they are still reflecting back as much as 60 percent of the sound waves.
What that means for your sound quality solution is that while foam panels may be less expensive, you are sacrificing quality and may need to use more panels to achieve the same noise-reduction results you are seeking. How many panels are needed to adequately reduce echo and reverberation in your space will depend on the size of your space, its use, and other materials in the room (including flooring, furniture, wall coverings, and more).
To determine how many panels you should expect to use in your space, use our calculator for a simple recommendation based on your room size and ceiling height. If your project has more complex needs, such as reducing noise in an open-concept office setting or utilizing suspended panels in a space with especially high ceilings, contact us for a more customized recommendation and quote.
Acoustic Design Works offers two choices of fabric covering for our dense, sound-absorbing fiberglass core. Both options are acoustically-transparent polyester fabric by Guilford of Maine, woven in North America. (Acoustic transparency means that sound waves can pass through and be absorbed by the core, rather than bouncing off and echoing around the room.)
Our FR701 Series fabric is a more coarse woven fabric with a muted or matte finish, available in several dozen colors ranging from neutral whites, grays and tans, to deeper jewel tones such as Cobalt and Deep Burgundy. This fabric is a great choice for use in formal, traditional settings and interior design schemes or where you want the panels to blend seamlessly into the background.
FR701 is made of 100 percent post-consumer recycled polyester fibers, with a noise reduction coefficient (NRC) of .95. NRC ratings range from 0 to 1. An NRC of 0 means that the product absorbs no sound. An NRC of 1 means that the product absorbs all sound. The higher the NRC, the better the product is at soaking up sound.
Our second fabric option, Anchorage, is a more finely-woven fabric with a slight sheen. The Anchorage palette includes more vibrant color selections with a modern edge. Also made entirely from recycled polyester fiber (65 percent pre-consumer and 35 percent post-consumer), Anchorage has an NRC rating of .85.
Both fabrics have been tested for colorfastness to light and to crocking (the tendency of color to transfer from one fabric to another with rubbing or abrasion). In 40 hour light tests, both received a minimum grade of 4, showing only slight fading in the duration of the test. Similarly, when tested for crocking both fabrics received minimum grades of 4 for dry tests and 3 for wet tests, meeting common standards for dyed textiles.
Both options can be cleaned with water-based cleaning agents, foam, or pure water-free solvents, along with vacuuming or light brushing to prevent dust and soil build-up.
Most of our standard acoustic wall panel shapes, sizes, and thickness options are available in either fabric with dozens of colors to choose from that can complement or your current or planned interior design color scheme. Visit our acoustic panel store to choose the right wall panels for your commercial construction, office remodel, or home improvement project.
If you want for a more customized look for your project, consider our custom wall or ceiling panels, which can be printed with a corporate logo or even a photograph to give your space a one-of-a-kind accent piece that blends acoustics with aesthetics to reinforce a brand image or personal style. Contact acoustic design experts to learn more or for recommendations on how to solve more complex acoustic challenges.
]]>The Rotofast Panel Anchors may be used to fasten rigid fiberglass core panels to drywall/Ceiling. The panel anchor is approximately 2 inches in diameter and less than 1 inch high. The Rotofast Snap On anchors are very secure and have been testing to have a pullout strength exceeding 45 lb. in standard 6 lb./ft3 fiberglass insulation board. Each substrate (concrete block, wall board, wood) may require different types of fasteners to attach Rotofast Panel Anchors securely. The acoustical panels may contain any rigid fiberglass core (4 to 12 lbs/cu ft) and be of a 1 to 4 inch thickness.
Downloadable PDF of Rotofast Cloud Anchor Mounting Instructions
Panel Size | Number of Z-Clip Locations |
16 SF or Less | 4 |
17 to 32 SF | 6 |
33 to 50 SF | 8 |
Note: Due to variations in fiberglass thickness, some shimming may be required to align the panel edges.
Note: Due to variation in fiberglass thickness, some shimming may be required to align the panel edges
Downloadable PDF of Impaling Clip Mounting Instructions
When audiences listen to live music, they typically think of the sound in the room as something that’s only for them and not the performing musicians they’re watching. However, little do they know that the stage sound mix is an absolutely crucial part of the show. When venues get it right, musicians are able to hear themselves clearly to help them play their best. When they get it wrong, big problems abound.
When the stage mix gets neglected, it sets off a chain of events impacting everyone from the musicians to the audience and ultimately the venue itself. When musicians can’t hear their instruments or are constantly battling with monitors feeding back, it can be detrimental for their performance. And it’s important to note here that plenty of venues have decent stage sound, but few really nail it. This seemingly small difference not only determines how well a band performs but also informs the overall impression of your venue.
In this case, the only solution is to get that audio mixer in line. Acoustic wall panels or acoustic ceiling panels are not going to make a bad mix sound good.
If every band played ear-crushingly loud punk music, then there wouldn’t be any need for venues to be acoustically treated. Luckily, that’s not the case. Acoustic treatment isn’t necessarily essential for all music venues, but it does offer many benefits. Your venue could have an amazing sound engineer on staff working with state-of-the-art sound equipment and could still miss the mark on sound without things like acoustical panels. This is because most rooms in venues are echo-y, noisy, and naturally sound bad.
Acoustic panels are designed to absorb harsh, unwanted noises to help audiences focus on the music being performed in the room. If you can picture the small recording studios musicians record in, that approach to sound is the same idea here only put into the context of large listening rooms. Acoustic treatments will help listeners catch every nuance in the sound of your venue’s shows. And while not going this route certainly won’t ruin the live shows you put on, investing in acoustic treatment is something that will leave a subtle but important impression on audiences. It’s the difference between OK and incredible when it comes to live sound.
If we could magically look at list of live music’s worst sound disasters, many of them would probably be caused by venues not hiring professional sound engineers. The best case scenario for when this happens is a muddy stage mix, echo, noise, and overall mediocre sound for the audience. But at its worst, leaving an untrained person behind the soundboard and no acoustic treatment in the room can lead to major unrecoverable disasters for venues like ruined performances for musicians and entire rooms clearing out because of diagnosable screeching feedback and other unpleasant sounds.
You get what you pay for in life, and this rule plays out in a big way when it comes to live sound. Professional sound engineers aren’t cheap, but they aren’t optional for music venues intent on staying in business. In the same way you’d never ask a random non-musically trained person to perform on stage, leaving your sound in the hands of anyone but a seasoned professional can ruin a concert.
A good, professional sound engineer is likely going to look at how sound waves are bouncing around the room. In this case, it’s highly likely some sound conditioning is needed and that’s where acoustic panels on walls and ceilings are going to come into play.
Venues can squeak by with bad sound equipment for a short time, but doing so usually causes big problems down the line. Cheap foam acoustic panels or tiles aren’t going to cut it. In the same way someone might save money buying a used car with lots of miles in the short term before having to fork over cash to fix problems later, cheap or used sound equipment often translates to bad live sound in the long run.
Things like cheap cables that intermittently cut out or broken speakers that can’t produce low tones can erode the confidence of the musicians playing on stage and leave listeners with a negative impression of your venue. Sound equipment and acoustic treatments are something people don’t pay much attention to until things become a problem. The advice here isn’t new or revelatory.
Investing in good sound ensures that venues will be stocked with reliable equipment, but the costs are significant. The question to ask here is how much you’re willing to spend and how much unreliable sound costs the reputation of your venue over the long-term. It’s worth it to spend the money on quality acoustical panels to ensure a great audio experience for the concert goers.
Things like too many bands playing in one night or a sound engineer showing up late for work might not seem like things that can ruin the sound of a concert, but they absolutely can. A ton of work goes into setting up the sound for just one band at a concert, so trying to run sound for a night featuring six different ones can exhaust an engineer and lead to a rushed, uninspired approach to sound. Similarly, when a band shows up late for a sound-check, things get overlooked and problems are more likely to occur.
This is a situation where the planning a venue puts into their shows has an impact on not only the type of concerts they put on, but also in how they sound. Skipping sound-checks and trying to get bands on and off the stage as quickly as possible leads to sloppy sound and bad performances because there’s not enough time or resources to give every act the sound they need to play they need to play their best. Rather than cramming in a night of tons of artists or accommodating musicians with tight schedules, venues are better off approaching things conservatively and only working in a way that gives musicians and audiences solid, unrushed sound.
In this case, acoustic panels aren’t going to save the day. You really need to check the sound before the show. And if it’s clear the sound is terrible no matter what you or the band do, it might be time to look into acoustical panels or other acoustic treatments. Or better musicians.
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The sound quality of a room quite often comes down to a misunderstanding of or disregard for the room’s acoustical properties and how that room should be treated to prevent any sound problems.
The sound that you hear when in an interior space can be divided into two categories: the direct sound, which comes straight from the original source (such as the voice of a person sitting directly opposite us) and the reverberant sound, which is when the sound has continued to reflect off surfaces in the room after the sound has stopped. This delay might not be too noticeable in small spaces or where a bit of extra noise is normal, but in a larger room or one where careful listening is important, it can make things challenging for the people in it. Later in this article we have some example scenarios of where this can happen, what the causes might be and what can be done to tackle the problems.
Even though it can be undesirable when it reaches high levels, reverberation should not always be thought of as a bad thing. All interior spaces – even those expertly fitted with acoustic treatment (more to come on that) – are affected by reverberation in at least a small way; it’s about keeping those levels right for that environment. European churches are known for their long reverb times (RT) – medieval churches can have RTs ranging from 2 all the way up to 13 seconds – but in those spaces it works. Many cathedrals that were built hundreds of years ago are still loved today for their sound characteristics. Without the benefit of modern technology or acoustical conditioning products, many of these structures were originally acoustically designed to suit traditional forms of worship based around choral or organ music that is undeniably enhanced when projected across a big ‘reverb-y’ space. For modern churches though, where more contemporary musical methods are employed, a great deal more sound control is usually required.
Spaces with very little reverberation (perhaps too many acoustic panels) can sometimes feel what we call ‘dry’, which might be okay in a place where clarity of speech is one of the key considerations and also in some contemporary music venues, but in other cases a bit more reverb can liven up the room a bit. A restaurant is a good example, as customers will want to experience a bit of an atmosphere and background ‘buzz’, but of course this has to be limited to maintain the right level of intimacy too. It can be a bit of a balancing act.
If you ever want to find out what it’s like to be in a room where there’s no reverberation then try spending a few minutes in an anechoic chamber, where sound and electromagnetic waves are completely absorbed and no external sound is allowed in at all. It can be a very uncomfortable and unsettling experience.
Getting the right atmospheric balance with an office environment is a challenge that countless businesses have faced, and it can be hard to get right. What many companies don’t realise is that acoustics and minimising sound interference with acoustic panels should be right near the top of the list of things to consider when planning the office, especially those favouring an open plan layout – one of the most popular arrangements these days.
A noise-free facility is not only crucial for maintaining productivity levels; it’s also a catalyst for good worker morale too. In a recent study from Oxford Economics, ‘the ability to focus and work without interruptions’ was selected as the most important feature of a work environment by employees and over half of the people surveyed said that unwanted ambient noise harmed their workplace satisfaction. Being inundated by multiple audio sources all at once understandably makes it difficult to concentrate and in some cases the noisy atmosphere has even been blamed for high staff turnover. Acoustic panels on the ceilings or walls of an office can make life so much better.
Noise complications in the office could be due to a lack of sufficient sound-absorbing surfaces, particularly when many of these spaces also have high ceilings. Combine this with hard floors, drywalls and lots of wooden or metal furniture and you’ve got a prime spot for lots of undesirable sound activity. Materials that allow sound to reflect off them are to be avoided; the trouble is, visually they can be quite appealing, which is why they are often chosen for office design projects where making the space look attractive is more of a priority than how the sound is kept under control within it.
Check out our design-focused, fabric-wrapped acoustical panels here.
It might sound a bit obvious, but being aware of internal or external noise sources that could cause unwanted interference is also important. In an office, upgraded window glazing may be necessary if there’s often heavy traffic outside, and it might not be the best idea to stick the conference room next to the printer or the cafeteria. Acoustical wall panels in hallways and conference rooms can absorb a lot of noise that ruins meetings. HVAC systems, although essential for employee comfort in another way, can become a real nuisance if they’re forgotten at the design phase as well. Having one humming away in a board meeting is not going to please the CEO, but out in a busy communal area it’s unlikely to bother anyone.
Instead of simply telling everybody to work in silence – Dave from Sales won’t like that – there are a number of ways to address these sorts of problems effectively.
For enclosed spaces where a lot of discussions will be taking place, treating the walls with acoustic panels or tiles will help absorb the sound and prevent it from bouncing from surface to surface.
If there is a lot of space overhead then it might be worth considering something like a ceiling baffle system, another great noise mitigation tool. Rooms with high ceilings often suffer from long reverberation times as well, but this time due to the sound travelling more vertically.
Finally, simply laying down rugs and carpets around communal spaces can also help prevent sound from reflecting off the floor.
Sometimes, the problem is less to do with reverberation and absorption and more to do with poor sound isolation, particularly in a place with individual zones where users want as little interference from outside their zone as possible. Again, an office with small private meeting spaces would be a good example. In these areas, having walls with a bit of extra density would help protect against unwanted sound transfer in and out of the space.
Even in a room treated for sound absorption and with dense walls, sound leakage can still persist through what are known as flanking paths. This is when the sound is able to find its way over, under or around a wall. It is therefore important that a room is properly sealed in the right places to be considered in any way soundproof.
It is easy to imagine how sound leakage would be possible between two rooms connected by an air vent system, but it can also happen in more inconspicuous ways. For example, if your neighbor is being noisy despite there being what appears to be a well-sealed, thick wall in the way, it could be because of a connected flooring system or ceiling joist between the two properties, which you can’t see but you can bet that sound will find its way through.
Another type of noise that can cause problems is also common in residential buildings: impact noise. This occurs when an object strikes another, making a sound which then causes a structural vibration on a wall, floor or ceiling, resulting in it being heard on the other side of that surface. A good example would be when you can hear footsteps coming through the hardwood floor of the room above in an apartment block. If they were to replace their hardwood floor with a carpet then it would reduce the sound coming through significantly, as the material of the carpet would help reduce the vibrations making it through to the structure underneath through which the sound would otherwise travel.
Acoustic oversights can become even more noticeable in a larger interior space, especially one where at least a decent level of audio quality is expected by multiple listeners, like an auditorium or lecture hall. In these places, speech intelligibility is crucial. The last thing you want is for students to not be able to hear the lecturer clearly.
Here, the sound (e.g. the lecturer’s voice) must travel a greater distance to reach the people sitting at the back of the room, and if the reverb hasn’t been dealt with properly then you could have reflections coming back in the opposite direction, maybe bouncing off the side walls as well.
Add a loudspeaker system into the mix and it can sometimes make matters worse rather than better in a room with insufficient treatment. Quite often it’s the technology that’s blamed when issues arise when in fact it’s the acoustics where the problems lie. If you have a space that’s poorly designed for sound distribution then you could put the world’s best PA system in there and it will still sound terrible. This explains why a lot of AV contractors will insist that the room’s acoustics are perfected before moving on to what equipment is needed. They’ll often employ acoustic panels to condition the room which improves the feel of it by cutting echo and noise.
That being said, the opposite can still apply – you might have spent a premium on hiring the best acoustician going, but if there was only enough left in the budget to buy the cheapest PA available or if the placement of the speakers is not right then that can be just as troublesome, or worse.
The best way to ensure that a space doesn’t suffer from sound issues is to make acoustics a key part of the whole design process from the beginning. For those thinking about designing a new space, appointing an acoustician should be considered just as important as bringing in someone who knows a thing or two about interior design. It’s always a lot easier – not to mention cheaper – to factor in sound control in the early stages as any potential complications can be addressed before all the expensive build work has been done.
The experts will have done a similar job multiple times before and know exactly what needs to go where, even if the space happens to be a little unusual in terms of size, shape or interior features.
Sound quality has always been considered by many to be less important than visuals. How many of us have gone out and bought a brand-new high-end TV but didn’t even think about adding a soundbar, acoustic panels on the walls, or maybe a few surround speakers? Yes, you might have amazing picture quality now, but you’ll be missing out on so much detail if you opt to rely on just those built-in speakers. Quite often, audio only really enters a person’s consciousness once it becomes a problem, when in reality it’s a crucial factor that should never be side-lined.
It’s the same with interior space design – of course having it look nice is important, but you won’t be able to get that coveted ‘vibe’ with a venue if you’re willing to let the sound run wild. Because it cannot be seen, people are often unsure about how to deal with sound issues or where to begin with acoustic panels and acoustic treatments. But as we’ve explained here, once you understand the causes and solutions, which probably aren’t actually as complicated as you might think, there will always be a way to address them. The best to start is to take a look at our acoustical panels that come in a variety of standard or even custom sizes, shapes and colors. Best of luck and don’t let the unseen world of errant sound waves ruin a great sound system.
]]>Churches and other places of worship are places where acoustic wall panels and other sound engineering products can be essential to get the most out of the experience. There are often a wide variety of sounds produced by choirs, bands, and sermons for a large, possibly noisy audience, so it is key that everyone can hear what is going on.
Furthermore, acoustic problems in churches are often misdiagnosed. They are blamed on bad sound systems, poor instruments or musicianship, or bad microphones. For example, members of a congregation can complain that they cannot understand or hear the worship leader, or that the musical band cannot hear each other. Other complaints are excessive echoing in the room caused by sound waves reflecting off hard surfaces that impairs hearing and distracts audience members. Acoustic panels in churches can tackle these problems and create a much better aural experience for all parishioners.
An easy way to diagnose these problems in a church is to clap your hands loudly and count how long it takes for the sound to disappear. This is called the concept of reverberation, which is when a sound wave reaches your ear in 0.1 seconds or less after it is first projected. This reverberated sound combines with the original sound to create a prolonged sound wave. A long reverberation time means it takes a longer time for these reverberation sound waves to get absorbed, and as a result, it will contribute more to intelligibility problems. This makes the goal of church acoustic treatment to lower the overall reverberation time and to reduce unwanted echoes.
Another common problem in churches is the fact that both spoken words and music need to be treated. In professional recording studios, the two types of sounds are recorded in different ways using different equipment. Therefore, acoustic treatment methods should take into account these two types of sounds and consider the best materials that should be used for each sound.
Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the properties of sound. The engineering component of acoustics uses the properties of sound waves to solve practical problems, such as enhancing the sound reflections inside an enclosed room. Common places where acoustic treatments such as acoustical panels can help improve room acoustics include large public spaces such as churches, places of worship, concert halls, and university lecture theaters where large gatherings of people are expected.
To learn about sound treatments and how acoustical panels can help, a basic understanding of how sound waves travel and reflect off hard surfaces is required.
To start off, the scientific definition of sound is a mechanical disturbance that can travel through any medium such as water or air. It is a longitudinal wave, which means that its periodic vibrations travel in the same direction as the wave’s direction of advancement, similar to how a coiled spring can be stretched and compressed.
Like most waves, such as radio waves and visible light waves, sound waves can be quantified by three basic properties:
Whenever a sound wave is produced, it will spread out in all directions and travel away from the source. The energy disturbance created by the sound wave will travel via the air particles inside the room. As these air particles are pushed and pulled against each other, a sound is created and can be picked up by the cochlea inside the human ear, which then converts these movements into neurological signals to be interpreted by the brain.
Additionally, sound can be reflected or absorbed depending on the type of materials it comes into contact with. For sound to be reflected, a special curved surface in the shape of a parabola is required. This allows the sound waves to be bounced out in a straight line toward a single point such as the audience members sitting in front of a curved stage. In contrast, sound absorption requires the energy of the waves to be absorbed to prevent it from vibrating. This occurs in all mediums, even air which can absorb the energy of sound waves and is the reason why you cannot hear someone calling your name across a large open field without a loudspeaker.
Lastly, diffraction is another phenomenon that can occur as sound waves travel within a room. This involves a change in direction of a wave as it is reflected off a surface and occurs mainly at sharp corners inside a room. The sharper the bend of the corner, the larger the amount of diffraction encountered by the wave. It is a highly useful property and can be used to manipulate the angle of diffraction to disperse the sound waves across large open spaces.
Once you have diagnosed any acoustic problems, it is time to fix them. There are a number of common acoustic treatment methods and materials to choose from. It is best to learn about them so you can make an informed decision when choosing the right method and material to solve your specific problem.
To start off, treating the inside walls of churches is the most common and easiest way to fix excess reverberation problems. This is because these walls are the first point of contact between the sound waves and church audience. The solution requires the installation of acoustic panels, which are usually rectangular shaped flat panels hung onto the walls or ceilings of a room.
Depending on their design, acoustic panels can:
Acoustic panels can be made from fiberglass, foam, and other materials and be customized based on specific needs.
To determine how much wall to cover, a good rule to thumb to follow is to look at the total surface area of the interior room and apply acoustic treatment to at least 50% of the surfaces. The distribution pattern of the acoustic panels should also be taken into account during installation. For example, some acoustic panels can absorb more sound waves when placed into a checkerboard pattern instead of a uniform covering. This is caused by the varying wavelength of the sound waves diffracting around the room and is the reason why you should always ask your acoustic panel supplier or a sound engineer for the best distribution pattern to use.
Echoing is another acoustic problem and it can be classified as flutter or slapback. Flutter echoes can be identified by a ringing or hissing sound that reflects off parallel side walls, while slapback echoes can be identified by sound waves returning to the stage area caused by reflections off large and curved surfaces. Both can be treated by the addition of scattering devices throughout the room instead of absorption panels.
In addition, to get the optimum balance of treatment between speech and music, music should be treated first. This means the music sound waves should be turned down compared to speech sound waves, which should be turned up. The difference in these two sound waves can be either enhanced or lowered depending on the type of material that goes into the acoustic wall panels. Repositioning of the loudspeakers may also be required as part of a multi-purpose sound treatment.
Choosing the Right Acoustics Treatment Materials for Your House of Worship
Loads of research has been done on the types of materials and their properties used in acoustics science. These materials, such as acoustic fiberglass panels, are used to enhance sound qualities by reducing resonance as well as to absorb or scatter and redirect sound waves inside a room. They must also adhere to strict fire safety standards in many municipalities and can have different densities and thicknesses. Some common types of materials in churches are glass, wool, and fiberglass. Most can be classified into porous materials, metamaterials, and sonic crystals.
Lastly, the chosen material should also be matched to the frequency range of the sound waves that are causing the most problems. For example, speech sound waves have a frequency range between 300 Hz to 2000 Hz. So, if you are installing panel treatments to enhance speech intelligibility, you need to ensure the materials you are using will absorb frequencies in the intended regions.
Hopefully this overview of acoustic treatments in churches and places of worship has helped illuminate a path to getting the sound in your space much more enjoyable. It's vital to make sure the message is being heard, and acoustic panels and other treatments can definitely help clarify the sound waves that message is carried on.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/acoustics.htmhttps://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/acoustics.htm
https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/acoustic-treatment-101/
Sound wave properties
https://www.britannica.com/science/sound-physics
https://www.mediacollege.com/audio/01/wave-properties.html
How sound travels inside a room
https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/waves/Lesson-3/Reflection,-Refraction,-and-Diffraction
https://www.nde-ed.org/EducationResources/HighSchool/Sound/reflection.htm
Common Acoustic Materials
https://www.salford.ac.uk/research/sirc/research-groups/acoustics/materials-for-acoustics
Reverberation vs Echoes
https://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/waves/er.cfm
Common Church Acoustic Problems & How to Fix Them
https://www.acousticfields.com/top-5-church-acoustic-treatment-options-need-consider/
https://www.churchproduction.com/education/how_to_guide_acoustical_treatments_and_design/
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A subtle but important way to improve the sound of your meetings is to treat your meeting space with acoustic panels. These panels are designed to absorb harsh, distracting noises like echo and reverb to help the right sounds cut through and resonate with audiences. A crystal clear voice is the best way to transmit the message. Acoustic panels will vastly improve the sound of your meetings whether your business relies on sound equipment or not.
Have you ever had the experience of talking a walk on a snowy day where everything around you seems to quiet down? This phenomenon happens because the falling snowflakes absorb the sounds around you. Acoustic wall panels work in a similar way. If you’ve ever walked into a quiet theater, church or concert hall and have experienced a sort of serene, silent reverence, acoustic panels were most likely the reason why.
Acoustic panels can improve the sound in your conference rooms and auditoriums by eliminating unwanted harsh sounds to help attendees focus on the message the speakers are delivering. And in the same way people feel a hushed inspiration when they sit down to watch a movie, play or musical performance, people who show up for your business meetings will approach things with more respect, curiosity and openness if the space you’re meeting in is treated with acoustic panels.
Whether you’re heading up a large conference filled with hundreds of attendees or a small meeting consisting of just you and your immediate staff, professionalism is vital. In the same way being unprepared for a project or wearing casual clothes in a business setting is seen as unprofessional or even tacky, not putting effort into the sound at meetings and conferences doesn’t reflect well on you, your company or your message. To make a musical comparison, a band might put on an incredible performance on stage, but if the sound isn’t where it should be, it won’t matter much to the audience.
When bad sound is a part of your meetings, the message you’re trying to convey suffers more than anything else. Problems like white noise, echo, or speakers not being loud enough are distractions that can easily translate into disasters when it comes to trying to get valuable information to people at your meetings. The average person at a big conference isn’t likely to stand up, interrupt the speaker and ask them to repeat the information again.
For example, if you’re a manager meeting with your team to roll out a vital new initiative, pieces of information run the risk of not being heard or edged out by pops and feedback squeals when the sound at your meetings is bad. And since a huge amount of money goes into planning business meetings, bad sound inevitably costs managers, speakers and companies a great deal of time, money and frustration. An important consideration should be allocating resources towards the acoustical treatment of the room and sound absorbing materials.
The average person attending a meeting with poor sound isn’t going to miss the entire message, but bad sound can be detrimental in more subtle ways. Business owners, professional speakers and managers are expected to be reliable, confident and, above all else, prepared. Hosting an important meeting or conference without proper acoustical panel treatments puts you at risk of having it look like you don’t know what you’re doing. Sure, there’s bigger disasters that can happen in business meetings, but lack of sound control is easily preventable and can hurt your reputation.
Most people think of high-quality sound as being something only musicians are concerned about, and for the most part they’re right. For instance, though the audience doesn’t always realize it, the quality of sound at a music venue can make or break an artist’s performance. When it comes to music, the gift of great sound via acoustic panels is an asset that delivers a great sonic performance to the audience as well as confidence to the musicians playing on stage. Not surprisingly, the same applies to the speaker at a business event. A clear voice and uninterrupted delivery impart confidence in the audience that the speaker is trustworthy and worth listening to.
Beyond ensuring adequate noise and echo absorption by employing acoustic panels, one of the best ways to ensure your meetings have clear, solid sound is to hire outside help. When businesses fail to prioritize sound, they often go it alone and buy sound equipment that they try to operate themselves during big meetings with disastrous results. Hiring outside help isn’t cheap, but doing so will take a lot off your plate when it comes to ensuring the sound at your meetings is where it needs to be.
Going with an outside agency for your sound not only gives you the expertise of a professional sound engineer on-site, but also state-of-the-art sound equipment and usually involves sound absorbing wall panels or ceiling panels. If you’re a manager or professional speaker, your talents and expertise probably cover a variety of areas and sound probably isn’t one of them. In the same way you wouldn’t task a new hire to oversee a complicated project, it’s key to leave the sound design to the professionals.
You won’t be able to bring great sound to your meetings until you start treating it like it’s important. Along with things like sticking to an agenda, staying on message and making sure the space you’re meeting in is comfortable and well-lit, the sound environment of your meetings should be a top priority. It's the message that suffers when people can't hear or are distracted by noise echoing around a room that has no sound absorbing materials.
Treating your space with acoustic panels is a critical step to improving the quality of your meetings and overall business communication. For businesses that take their meetings seriously, paying special attention to quality sound treatments can pay off in a big way.
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