Acoustic Treatment

Acoustic Treatment is applying sound or noise reducing products to floors, walls, and ceilings to control sound and create a more pleasant environment.  Many large spaces such as gyms, pools, cafeterias, and multi-purpose rooms may have hard surfaces that may be easy to clean, but reflect noise and create problems acoustically.  Garbled speech, echo, slap back, and other issues arise in these types of spaces when acoustics are not addressed.  An acoustical treatment for these spaces would be to add the correct amount of acoustical absorption to absorb unwanted, reverberated noise.

Flat, hard surfaces such as concrete block, drywall gypsum board, and metal decking reflects sound.  When a large space is constructed of these materials, sound will reflect off of multiple surfaces and reverberate throughout the space.  The amount of time it takes for the sound to reduce by 30 dB is called the reverberation time.  This time is used as a gauge to provide an idea of how much reverberation is in the space.  For any room other than performance spaces, above 3 second reverberation time is high.

All building materials have properties of acoustical absorption measured in sabins at third octave frequencies.  Using the length x width x height of a space to determine room volume and calculating the total acoustical absorption in the room using the total square footage of each building material multiplied by the acoustical absorption value in sabins provides you with the current reverberation time of the space.  Next you calculate how much acoustical absorption needs to be added to the room to bring the reverberation time down to acceptable levels.  It’s nest to use the square footage number as a base line for design of the acoustic treatment.

If you are needing some assistance in understanding how to calculate sound measurements and find the best solutions for your noise control needs, check out our acoustical consultant services. Our experts will take precise measurements for you, provide detailed site maps of the noise and recommend the best products for your individual use case. For help in designing an acoustical treatment for your space, call eNoise Control today.