A school hall that was severely affected by reverberation and echo has been transformed into an acoustically-comfortable, productive educational space by Hush Acoustics using Hush Absorber 50 panels.
The multi-purpose hall at Overchurch Infant School at Upton, Wirral, is a key facility within the community school which caters for over 300 children in the age groups between 4 and 7. Its focus is on the first years of compulsory education, working closely with surrounding junior schools for the next stage of the children’s education.
The acoustic environment within the hall of the 1930s-built school was being severely affected by high levels of background noise when used for daily activities such as assemblies, PE sessions and music lessons. As is common in many schools and colleges, the main issue was reverberation, caused by soundwaves bouncing off hard surfaces, such as a wooden floor and plastered walls, and back into the room.
Impacts of reverberation
One of the major impacts of reverberation, which causes a cacophony – a harsh mixture of sounds – to develop, is that it results in poor speech intelligibility within the room. Coupled with the echo effect, this is extremely problematic in schools because it can lead to children disengaging with their formal learning process and it impacts on their ability to socialise.
In the Overchurch school hall, the reverberation time (RT), was assessed by Hush Acoustic pre-treatment to be an average of 6.86 seconds, with some lower frequencies peaking at up to 13.1 seconds. This is significantly higher than the 1.5-2.0 seconds minimum required by BB93, the schools-specific design guidance aligned to the Building Regulations in England & Wales.
Hush proposed a solution based on the installation of sound absorber panels, which immediately increase to amount of surface area available on walls and ceilings for soundwaves to be absorbed. After visiting the school to measure the volume of the hall and see first-hand how the space is furnished, equipped and used, the Hush technical team was able to produce a series of acoustic calculations to offer two solutions based on level of improvement sought and the budget.
Both proposals centred on the installation of Hush Absorber 50 panels on the ceiling only, enabling the school to retain the relatively limited wall space between the hall’s large windows for other purposes, such as for displaying children’s work and notices. These absorber panels feature a 50mm thick special acoustic foam inner core faced with a durable fabric that can be specified in a range of standard colours to match a room’s décor.
Once the Hush proposal was approved, a total of 45 absorber panels sized 1200 x 1200 mm were manufactured in a white outer fabric within three weeks of the order. These were installed by Acoustic Design North West, an experienced installation partner to Hush who works extensively on projects throughout the region, with particular specialism in addressing reverberation issues within buildings.
As a result of the installation of the Hush Absorber 50 panels on the ceiling of the Overchurch Infant School hall, a much more acoustically comfortable space was created instantly. After the room was treated, the average RT measured across a range of sound frequencies is now 2.34 seconds, but this is as low as 1.44s at some frequency bands.
Overchurch Infant School comments: “The project to treat our hall with acoustic absorber panels has been a great success and we are delighted with the transformation it has delivered. The hall is now much more pleasant for the teachers and staff to work in, and the children are much more engaged than they were previously, chiefly due to the improved speech intelligibility achieved by reducing reverberation.”
To find out more about Hush Absorber 50, as well as all the other solutions available from Hush to improve the acoustic environment in schools and all kinds of commercial and public buildings, call 0114 352 0695 or visit www.hushacoustics.co.uk.
