Most rooms you will encounter, will, to some degree have issues when it comes to acoustics. In many rooms where acoustic issues may not seem as obvious, they can be a cause of much trouble and intelligibility issues. Many small rooms suffer from horrible room acoustics, yet many think of larger rooms requiring room acoustics.
In a video or teleconference call, the far-end will experience poor intelligibility if the room acoustics within the room are poor. The microphones in the room, no matter how directional, will pick up some of the room. Once the system is installed, there may not be additional money to spend on acoustic treatment, and therefore, the customer is left with a system that they aren’t 100% happy with. Acoustic treatment can be somewhat tricky, part of the reason why many in our industry steer clear of using it. What many don’t realize is that the overall end result for the customer will be far better if acoustic treatment is done, when done properly, of course.
Its no secret that poor acoustics will negatively impact these kinds of spaces. Studies carried out over the last few decades have found that these negative impacts can affect a companies efficiency; which has the end result of affecting profit margins. Adjusting the RT (reverb time) is massively important with regards to efficiency both within the room, and externally, on the far-end during a video or teleconference call.
We recently took on representation of Vicoustic, a Portugal-based manufacturer of wide variety of acoustic treatment products. Anything from your run of the mill, simple standard foam absorption panels, to more sophisticated, and unique products for doing diffusion, isolation, etc. They offer many shapes, sizes, and custom finishes. Not only do the products look fantastic, they do the job, as stated in their specs. Vicoustic excels at making acoustic panels that don’t look like ugly, traditional acoustic panels.
Whats even better, they offer full design services. I mentioned earlier in this post that many integrators understand very little about how to properly incorporate acoustic treatment properly into their spaces. Therefore, taking advantage of this service will dramatically improve the overall experience of your customer with their meeting spaces, which will then result in a happier customer, who will buy more from you!
Vicoustic has done many studies to find the optimal RT for such a space, and they recently released an example case study. We’d like to share this example with you. It is a prime example of the benefit of acoustic treatment. Plus, this showcases the in-depth, and beautiful PDF designs.
To begin, once a design request is submitted to Vicoustic, with any photos and drawings, it will be sent out to their design team for review. Once the project is discussed between you and the Vicoustic team, they will provide you with a well-thought out, beautifully designed report that will give you an in-depth look of their acoustic design recommendation, specific for your space. The design will be in harmony with the aesthetics of the space as well.
Lets take a look at the report, and this design example:
In this example, we see a small huddle space. On the wall are two displays. In this particular instance, it doesn’t appear the space is utilizing any video conferencing, however that could be implemented with some tweaks to the space. Above, two views of a 3D rendering are provided, which show the room with acoustic treatment installed. For an end-user, this is a phenomenal way to give them a proof of concept of how their space will look with the acoustic treatment installed. This is especially important for customers who are as concerned about the aesthetics, as they are the performance of the acoustic treatment. Unfortunately, aesthetics often trump the practicality, and best case scenario for AV systems, and how it looks dictates a decision more often than not.
In addition to the 3D renderings, additional renderings are provided, to give you an overhead and side views; these are really useful when installing the panels, as it clearly shows placement. Below, are two additional renderings:
Vicoustic has proposed the following solutions in order to control the reverberation time within this room: i) sound absorbing panels, which will control the reflections by taking energy from them (this is being done by Vicoustic’s Cinema Round Premium panel). Based on the guide to office acoustics elaborated by FIS organization – this guide promotes best practice in the design and installation of acoustic solutions in offices – and taking into account the room’s volume, recommended upper and lower limits for the room’s Reverberation Time when unoccupied have been defined.
Following in the report is a section devoted to the RT-reverberation time, showing both the RT prior to treatment, then after with room treatment with the proposed solution. In this particular example/guide, the proposed solution provided a low frequency reduction in RT of 21%, 68% for mid frequencies, and 72% for high frequencies. Shown below, is the RT for the untreated room:
Shown next, are the affected RT based on the proposed solution:
In the pages after, information is provided on the products used for this proposed solution, in addition to a very useful BOM- bill of materials. Quoting is made simple and easy, as you will know exactly what is required:
This is just one of the awesome services, and benefits of working with Vicoustic. At the end of the day, your job as an integrator or AV system designer is to provide an integrated solution, that your customer will be thrilled with. Vicoustic makes products for better acoustics. Reverberation, resonances, noise and materials like glass, brick and concrete can destroy a music experience, intelligibility and comfort. Vicoustic delivers clever solutions for every situation, from demanding recording studios to offices, restaurants and schools.
A little bit about their design and support team: The Team includes Civil Engineers, specialized in structural engineering, Designers, and Senior Acousticians. We also utilize our Research Department to develop customized products to satisfy your every need. Vicoustic has
the most advanced hardware and software tools available to accurately simulate the finalised acoustic result. If you are interested in learning more about their services, or to request a design on a project, go here.
To view their website, please go here.
Pacific AV proudly represents Vicoustic in California, Nevada, and Arizona. To learn more about Vicoustic, in addition to all of our other lines, please visit our website.