Application Spaces

ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT IN OFFICES:

A close link has been proven between high levels of productivity and concentration at work and favourable working conditions. Regulation ISO 3382-3:2012 represents the standard for measuring a room’s acoustics and the quality of a speaker’s privacy in open space offices. The quality of the speaker’s intelligibility and privacy, the distance of distraction and the diffuse sound field are all elements that contribute to the correct acoustic comfort. Different aspects should be assessed when analyzing the acoustics of an open space office, such as the distance between the work stations and the height of the partitions between the stations. The acoustic requirements can vary in this type of environment: for example, certain offices require good intelligibility to encourage communication among employees, so there should be fewer and lower partitions in this case. However, this will reduce the speaker’s privacy. Less privacy means more distractions. Therefore, in environments where concentration is more important, greater attention must be paid to the layout and to the sizes of the partitions.

SOUND-ABSORBING PANELS FOR MEETING ROOMS:

The acoustic comfort of a meeting room is an essential requirement for productive and efficient meetings. If you actively take part in meetings held in rooms with poor acoustics, you will inevitably suffer from greater mental fatigue. You will surely have found yourself in work meetings and, from time to time, have felt like you needed a break for a few minutes. This is a sign of the onset of mental fatigue. In this situation with the wrong reverberation times, problems can occur with the sound waves reflected off walls, ceilings and the ground overlapping with the incident sound wave, causing a clear loss of intelligibility, a difficulty in following any dialogue and the subsequent mental fatigue of keeping high concentration levels. When designing a meeting room, we should pay the utmost attention to our choice of finishing materials to guarantee low reverberation times that are suitable for the activity taking place.

SOUNDPROOF CEILING PANELS FOR CONFERENCE HALLS:

The speaker is not the only one responsible for making sure listeners are paying close attention. Rooms with poor acoustics inevitably lead to greater mental fatigue and consequently to a loss of concentration. When designing a conference hall, we should pay the utmost attention to our choice of finishing materials to guarantee low reverberation times that are suitable for the activity taking place. Furthermore, the position of the sound-absorbing material is important: targeted distribution of the acoustic absorption in the room must be planned to guarantee that the same quality of sound can be heard in every corner of the room. Therefore, the optimum reverberation time in a room used for listening to others talking is represented by the right compromise between achieving a sufficient level of sound to be effortlessly heard.

ACOUSTIC COMFORT IN HOTELS:

Silence is a very important comfort parameter in hotels: many people carefully check the reviews left by guests to find out whether a hotel is comfortable, including in terms of its acoustics. Many hotels in Italy do not currently meet the minimum acoustic comfort standards, even though there has been a law in force on this issue since 1997 (Prime Ministerial Decree 05/12/1997) that expressly requires rooms to be insulated internally and externally, while also limiting the noise produced by air conditioning systems, plumbing, etc.

ACOUSTIC REVERBERATION:

The problem of acoustic reverberation can also have a significant impact on daily life in recreational environments. We are thinking, for example, of canteens. How many times have you eaten in noisy halls and can’t wait to get out of there for a bit of peace and quiet. Studies conducted by environmental protection agencies have proven that when primary school students spend half an hour in a very noisy school canteen, they then need to spend an hour in a calm environment to relax. Major repercussions on behavior, social skills and, last but not least, learning have all been observed.

INTERIOR SOUND-ABSORPTION PANELS: WAITING ROOM SOLUTIONS

Waiting rooms can be various sizes and are located at the entrance to studios, offices, public businesses, museums, stations and airports. It is important to provide the people waiting in these areas with a comfortable and relaxing environment, allowing them to hold private conversations without the risk of being heard by those around them. By improving a room’s acoustic performance, we can offer high-quality living conditions for that room.

ACOUSTIC TREATMENT OF STUDY ENVIRONMENTS:

Effective oral communication in the field of education, and therefore in the learning process, is closely linked to the room used and the conditions it provides. Excessive reverberation and high levels of background noise reduce speech intelligibility. Certain studies have shown how students’ margins of error can vary by over 15% in a room where the reverberation time produces a sound above 60 dB. While below 55 dB this percentage falls dramatically to 4.3%. With this in mind, the acoustic design of a classroom aims to ensure that the person speaking is as comprehensible as possible. When working to correct the acoustics of a classroom, we must apply different types of materials so that the whole range of the frequencies concerned is absorbed.

LIBRARIES SOUND ABSORPTION :

An essential requirement of a library is that it keeps the background noise level of voices low. If this does not happen, concentration levels decrease and people are more likely to get distracted. This problem is specific to libraries because when a few people are having a conversation it can disturb others, especially when the reading tables are very close to each other.

CALL CENTRES SOUND-ABSORPTION:

A disjointed pace of life and short repetitive calls, discussions with customers can cause such stress to call centre operators that their working day becomes impossible. Caruso Acoustic can redesign any work areas to reduce the typical chaotic atmosphere of crowded, noisy environments. In fact, by correctly applying sound-absorbing materials, it will reduce sound reverberation and absorb energy from unwanted reflections as well as background noise. Caruso offers Silent as the perfect solution specifically for call centres: a single-sided sound-absorbing panel upholstered in fabric, which can be installed on walls or ceilings with special tracks. Also available in a hanging version, Silent minimizes acoustic disturbances from speech.

AIRPORTS ACOUSTIC REVERBERATION:

An airport is characterized by the flow of people who move through it every day. We are thinking of the movements of hundreds of people who go to the check-in with their luggage and then to their departure gate for boarding. All this movement in such an expansive environment with hardly any furniture ensures that voices and noises travel, causing chaos and disorientation. The high interior ceilings and the smooth, highly reflective surfaces help make the airport an acoustically uncomfortable environment.

HOSPITALS AND MEDICAL CENTRES:

Hospitals and medical centers are used by two main groups of people: medical staff and patients. These two types of people have different acoustic requirements dictated by the different activities they do there. Good acoustic comfort will improve staff’s performance at work as well as patients’ satisfaction. Corridors at healthcare facilities are usually crowded areas where a large part of the communication between medical staff takes place. Due to their elongated shape, sound travels all along the corridor, affecting the rooms on the corridor as well. In this situation, the Flag sound-absorbing panel guarantees to block the volumetric wave, minimizing reverberation. Available in 11 standard sizes so they can be adapted to any acoustic and architectural requirements, these panels can be assembled horizontally or vertically, either on tracks or hung from the ceiling by thin cables.

The acoustics in the reception of a dental practice must be optimized to guarantee privacy between patients and the information desk, so they feel at ease in a quiet and comfortable environment. Silent panels on the wall or hung from the ceiling allow patients to hold private conversations with the medical staff without the risk of being heard by the other people there.

It is important that waiting rooms provide the people waiting with a comfortable and relaxing environment, thereby reducing the potential stress of waiting. However, operating theatres have special requirements in terms of their acoustics and hygiene. These environments can be very stressful for both patients and doctors. The medical staff must be able to communicate easily, but the noise of the equipment can disturb them and make their work difficult.

REVERBERATION IN GYMS, SWIMMING POOLS:

The most common problem in gyms, swimming pools and sports arenas is reverberation. Gyms dedicated to group workouts often lack the proper acoustic requirements and consequently the noise can cause mental stress. Music, machines in use (e.g. treadmills) and gym goers’ voices can all contribute to making the gym uncomfortable and chaotic. Sound-absorbing panels therefore become essential elements to deal with these problems and to offer users a peaceful environment where they can enjoy their own sport. Our panels are the perfect solution for these environments. Hung from the ceiling by steel cables, they can be combined in different formats to create configurations of various shapes and sizes, in particular, guarantees to block the volumetric wave, minimizing reverberation.

dBFabb allows you to create different environments incredibly easily in one single room. In addition to having excellent sound absorption, thanks partly to its large surface, it lets you adjust any area to different furnishing solutions in an extremely dynamic and simple way.

a single-sided sound-absorbing panel upholstered in fabric, can be installed on the wall or on the ceiling with special tracks. Also available in a hanging version, it minimizes acoustic disturbances from speech.

A series of products have been designed and developed to solve the various acoustic issues in a wide range of different environments. dBFabb Acoustic sound-absorbing products have been tested in reverberation chamber in accordance with standard ISO354 and are divided according to their type of application (walls, horizontal hanging cables, free-standing panels, etc.). Technical data sheets and certifications are available upon request. dBFabb Acoustic products meet European fire safety regulatory requirements in accordance with standard UNI EN 13501-1, certified under class B-s2,d0 These products also comply with existing health and safety legislation for the new formaldehyde classification.