You put a lot of time and effort into choosing and installing the perfect sound system for your space. Even if you purchase top-of-the-line speakers, amplifiers, and mixers, you need to address the acoustics in the spaces where you will use them. Unless you have a room with perfect acoustics, which is unlikely, your space will create echoes, extra noise, and sound reflections. This is a problem because these excess noises will cause listening discomfort that your audio system alone cannot overcome.
Without any type of professional acoustic treatment or soundproof panels, the speaker system in your office, church, restaurant, gymnasium, auditorium, and other commercial environments will struggle to provide a comfortable listening environment. By addressing the acoustic needs of your space, you can make a big difference.
Because soundproof acoustic panel design is often thought of after a sound system is purchased, you probably have some additional questions. We’ve come up with the questions that we hear the most and provided answers from one of our audio engineers.
What are acoustic panels and what do acoustic panels do?
Acoustic sound panels control the way that sound is absorbed, reflected, and diffused in your space. The majority of acoustic sound dampening panels are fireproof insulation boards covered in fabric. Each material that makes up the panel absorbs a different amount of sound, and the combination of acoustic panel materials works together to trap sound increasing the acoustic comfort of your space.
How do acoustic panels work?
Sound is constantly moving in all directions. Acoustic dampening panels are a surface that absorbs sound as it is bouncing around a room. Some of the sound is collected by the panel and some still pass through, so you need to install enough panels to absorb enough sound to notice a significant difference.
Do acoustic panels work?
Yes, they absolutely work. The effectiveness of the acoustic absorption panels is based on the number of panels that you have installed in your space. Basically, the more sound panels that you have, the more sound that will be absorbed. If you have fewer panels, less sound will be absorbed and more will continue to bounce around your room.
How many acoustic panels do I need?
Two main aspects will determine the number of panels that you need. First, you will need to take into consideration the measurements of your room and the materials used when building the room - wood, metal, concrete, foam, etc. The second determining factor is the acceptable reverb time for your building or space. What you need for a church or gymnasium will be different than what you need for a restaurant or office building.
What is the difference between soundproofing and acoustic treatment panels?
True soundproofing and acoustic sound treatments are two different ways to address excess noise in commercial spaces. There are only a handful of truly soundproofed rooms in the world, and soundproofing to this extent is more advanced than most people will ever need.
Acoustic panel treatment reduces noise and increases sound intelligibility to greatly improve the acoustic comfort of large volume spaces and buildings with hard walls, reflective surfaces, and high open ceilings.
What type of spaces do acoustic diffuser panels work in?
Because of the varying shapes, sizes, and makeups of commercial buildings, many audio challenges exist, especially if you are trying to achieve sound privacy or low noise.
Acoustic sound-absorbing panels can optimize sound quality in gymnasiums, cafeterias, restaurants, churches, auditoriums, theaters, conference rooms, boardrooms, huddle spaces, open office spaces, classrooms, lecture halls, daycares, band rooms, music rooms, factories, warehouses, call centers, and entertainment venues. They can be wall-mounted, ceiling-mounted, flown or installed in the ceiling to capture and reduce unwanted sound reflections and echoes in your space.
For gymnasiums and other open space environments with hard surfaces that reflect echoes and frequent loud noises, gym acoustic sound panels for noise absorption reduce gym noise, capture unwanted echoes, and improve the overall acoustics in a gym, classroom, auditorium, or any other large, noisy room.
Need help choosing the best acoustic sound panels?
It is completely normal for people to feel overwhelmed when choosing an acoustic treatment package, after all, there are a large number of options available and every space's needs are different. Don’t worry. With over 100 years of collective audio design experience, we’ve got you covered.
Our system designers have built acoustic treatment kits for many different types of spaces. Simply choose one of these packages that you think could meet your needs and submit a quote request. Don’t worry too much about which one you chose though, because this is just a starting point. One of our Sales Engineers will take it from there and guide you in finalizing a product selection that is tailored to your exact application and budget. You can shop with confidence knowing that your acoustic treatment was designed by a qualified audio engineer and we’ll provide you with lifetime tech support.
Check out our website www.proacoustics.com, give us a call at (888)-256-4112, or email us at [email protected], and we will be happy to help you design the perfect custom acoustical panel system for your needs.
