The Old Joinery | Building Acoustics

Digital Reflow are a web design and digital marketing consultancy working within a divided industrial building. The office hosts significant numbers of client interactions through conference and telephone calls and audio/visual displays.

Staff complain that the main office and meeting room is too ‘echoey’ causing difficulties with simultaneous telephone conversations. 

dBC investigated the issue on Tuesday 12th May.

The building acoustics assessment cited too many hard-reflective surfaces and little sound absorption caused both spaces to suffer from excessive reverberation leading to poor communication conditions. The main office had a mid-frequency reverberation time of 1.8s and the meeting room 1.2s. as a guide, for general offices, the target reverberation time is 1.0s and for audio-visual, video conference rooms it is 0.8s. 

The acoustic solution was that sound absorption was needed to be added to both spaces with the client insisting that the acoustic solution should not alter the decorative and visual look of the spaces. 

dBC specified twelve 40mm thick sound absorbent, hanging wall and ceiling tiles to be installed throughout both spaces.

With minimal disruption to the spaces, dBA installed 8 tiles in the main office and 4 in the meeting room. The tiles blended into the decorative finish of the spaces and provided significant sound absorption.

The difference in each room was subjectively noticeable immediately and the reverberation time fell from 1.8s to 0.8s in the main office and was down to 0.6s in the meeting room. 

The client was impressed with the outcome and the professional acoustic consultancy received from dBC and dBA. The spaces can now be used effectively for visual and audio communications. 

To improve the building acoustics in your office please contact us.