Acoustic comfort transformed inside Gloucestershire village hall

Background

Opened in 1955, Stinchcombe Village Hall has been at the heart of the community in the Gloucestershire village for decades, and it continues to thrive thanks to the dedication of a group of local residents and regular users. An active programme ensures the hall is regularly used for a whole host of activities, classes, clubs, and events for residents, maintaining its original mission to provide a facility that supports physical and mental wellbeing, training and recreation.

The committee works to ensure the village hall’s facilities are maintained to a high standard. The hall features dimmable lighting, a stage with seating area, kitchen; and toilets accessible to disabled users, plus another meeting room known as the ‘Committee Room.

Over the years Stinchcombe Village Hall has benefited from various upgrading projects, including in recent times improved heating and energy efficient lighting throughout. However, the committee are constantly looking at how they can improve things further, including acoustics.

Problem

Charlie Oakhill, Chairman of Stinchcombe Village Hall, approached acoustic specialists Sound Reduction Systems (SRS) to explore the potential for reducing excessive reverberation within the hall during use. The committee had taken the initiative prior to contacting SRS by completing and submitting SRS’s online 3 Step Estimator Form.

They wanted to take action to make the hall more acoustically comfortable during regular activities. Users often found it difficult to hear speech and music easily because of the high levels of ambient noise that developed, particularly during performances and busy activities.

Solution

Upon receiving key information about Stinchcombe Village Hall, including the dimensions, surface finishes and photographs of the ceiling and walls, SRS were able to input this data into their Sonata acoustic modelling software. This was able to evaluate the existing acoustic performance of the room and specify exactly how much Sonata Class A sound absorption would be required to solve the issue.

The Stinchcombe Village Hall committee were then presented with a report detailing predicted before and after performance and a budget estimate for the treatment. Once this had been approved, the next step was for an SRS technical advisor to visit the hall and carry out a dimensional survey to confirm the specification and quote.

SRS Sonata Aurio absorbers are a practical and cost effective way to control reverberation inside buildings like this village hall where there are a lot of hard surfaces. The panels comprise a technical, non-shedding, acoustic foam with an acoustically transparent fabric finish to the face and sides. They are easy and quick to install and can be directly bonded to walls and ceilings, and because they are robust, they are perfect for gyms, sports halls or anywhere where ball strikes may occur.

Results

The site survey was carried out by SRS Director, Alex Docherty. He said:

“The presence of hard, acoustically reflective surfaces and lack of soft furnishings was creating a high level of reverberation and echo. This was creating an environment that wasn’t ideal for many activities undertaken within the hall and making speech intelligibility particularly poor. Once the details of the hall had been entered into the SRS computer prediction programme, it showed an estimated mid-frequency reverberation time (Tmf) of 3.73s – way higher than the recommended value of <1.5s for a room of this usage.”

After the quotation was approved by the committee, approximately 52m² of class A Sonata Aurio acoustic panels were installed to the walls and ceiling within the hall, with fantastic results.

Client feedback

Following completion of the installation, Charlie Oakhill, Chairman of Stinchcombe Village Hall commented:

“Thank you for completing the acoustics promptly and a very tidy job. The panels have made a tremendous difference in our hall and I am sure we will get a lot of positive feedback from our users.

“Jed the installer did a great job and left everything neat and tidy, he is a credit to SRS. Thanks again and finally we are happy to speak to any potential customers and also happy if they want to come and have a look and a listen.”

Products used

·       Sonata Aurio panels