Room Acoustics are incredibly important in designing and installing an audiovisual system and the team at DIB Audiovisual have a wealth of experience in understanding the impact of a room on sound.
Factors such as the size of the room, the materials of walls, floors and ceilings, and even furnishings all have an impact.
Likewise, the positioning of speakers and attendees.
If you’ve ever shouted “cooee!” across a bushland valley, or been in a restaurant where you couldn’t hear the people at your table, you’ll have an idea of what we are talking about.
In this article, we wanted to share some tips for improving your room acoustics, and also the various things you need to take into account.
- Walls and ceilings reflect sound – when you get sound bouncing around in a room, it can really wreck a good acoustic.
- If you’ve ever walked into a house where all the furniture has been taken out, you’ll have heard the echo. In any room, it is a good idea to have some items to deaden the sound. This can be as simple as a couch in the room, or choosing the rights chairs around your conference table.
- Meeting and quiet areas – in a school or office situation, one good idea is to nominate specific meeting areas and quiet areas.
- Plants – plants can be good sounds absorbers and double as room dividers
- Phone rooms – if you’re in an open plan area, you can have a place where people can make a louder phone call, rather than everyone conducting these calls at their desks
- Sound absorbing materials – in certain situations, lining a wall or area with sound deadening material might be important.
When we look at acoustics, here are some specific things we do to help increase sound quality in a space.
- We select high quality directional speakers – some speakers are not designed for the space where they are installed and they throw sound out in all directions. Directional speakers can be used to point sound at specific parts of an audience
- Hearing loops – we’ve designed and installed hearing loops for various organisations and groups where a percentage of their audience have hearing problems.
- In gymnasiums, the hard flat, parallel surfaces are the main causes of echo and reverberation. We take the time to consider a specific room and then select speakers and locations for those speakers that will work best within the dynamics of the room.
- In dining halls, especially those with large glass windows or hard furniture, you can get messy acoustics and the choice of microphones, speakers and their placement is a critical consideration that we are well versed with making.
No one likes noise, and we all crave a clear and high quality sound experience. The team at DIB is skilled in understanding acoustics and will work with you and your location to design and install the best possible solution.
It is also good to bring us into the huddle early in the design phase of new buildings, because we can help guide your architects and builders on key sound and light considerations that will save time and money down the track.
We look forward to working with you on your next project.