Composites
Composites feature a combination of both an absorber and barrier product, and are used when there is more than one acoustical issue to address. For example, a home theater requires improved sound quality within the room, but also stops movie noise from transferring to opposing rooms.
A combination of acoustical materials, typically fiberglass products, layered together with a mass-loaded vinyl barrier help improve sound absorption and reduce sound transmission.
Determining construction needs for real-world results
To avoid cost overruns or significant rework, it is important to specify the right product the first time. Proper planning can eliminate guesswork and help construction teams and product specifiers choose a solution that performs as intended to deliver acoustically correct wall and ceiling panels in any environment.
Construction teams must consider:
- size and shape of the room or space—whether there are hard parallel surfaces in the room, or if there are vaulted ceilings;
- what is the room being used for—a classroom needs to be quieter and less reverberant than a gymnasium;
- source and type of the noise you are looking to control—different strategies are used to improve speech intelligibility versus decreasing room-to-room noise; and
- surface textures in the room—where can acoustical materials be placed? Are there windows, hardwood flooring, and concrete walls? Could treatments be hung from the ceiling?
The National Aviary in Pennsylvania and the Avon Magnet School in Massachusetts are two examples of how planning can deliver superior acoustical and aesthetic results. The aviary required both wood wall and ceiling treatments for its large live performance area, and the school needed a fabric-wrapped solution to enhance the acoustics of its performance space.
The National Aviary in Pittsburgh is America’s only independent indoor nonprofit zoo dedicated exclusively to birds. The aviary has a performance area where informative classes featuring birds flying in and out of the room are hosted to educate spectators. As with any live stage, the space needed to be not too quiet, yet still somewhat reverberant so the sound projects out into the audience while also sounding correct or true to those on stage. The National Aviary also wanted to make the back of the room ‘dead,’ meaning quieter and less reverberant. The goal with the ‘dead’ back of the room is to keep the sound from bouncing off the back wall or ceiling area and crossing back over top of the audience, which can disrupt what is being said on stage in real time.
The National Aviary achieved both the ‘live’ end and ‘dead’ end of its space by treating just the ceiling above the stage, as well as the ceiling and back wall behind the audience with perforated acoustical wood wall and ceiling panel. The true wood veneer solution allowed the natural look of the room to be maintained while achieving acoustical ratings in the range of NRC .80.
The Avon Magnet School had classrooms and a stage area that also needed reverberation control to allow for better student awareness and hearing. Unlike the National Aviary project, the aesthetic requirements of the Avon Magnet School were not as much of a concern. The school achieved its desired acoustical goals by installing a series of fabric-wrapped fiberglass panels that had a NRC .85 rating, which met aesthetic goals and managed to stay within the price budget that the school had in mind for the project.
David Ingersoll has over 14 years of experience in the soundproofing and noise control industry. In his role as director of business development, he works with Sound Seal’s network of distributors and representatives to grow and expand the Architectural and WoodTrends lines of acoustical products. Ingersoll frequently advises architects, designers, acoustical consultants, and engineers on how to use Sound Seal’s extensive line of products to solve acoustical problems. He can be reached at dingersoll@soundseal.com.
In music halls and other buildings like so, its quite interesting if you take a look around. One of the things that you will notice is how the walls and the ceiling of the room take shape. They are formatted in a certain way so that the sound waves will travel well and not be muffled out. I do like the picture you used to show how sound waves will move from one room to another.