How to design a good sound environment

Good sound environment implies more productive people with better health and well-being. At Acoustic Facts we receive many questions on how rooms should be furnished in order to create the best acoustic characteristics of a room, and here are our main strategies (in order of decreasing importance for the total sound environment):

1. Ensure that the room is equipped with an efficient absorbing ceiling, preferably covering the whole ceiling, but also with high sound absorption (sound absorption coefficient αw close to 1.0)   
2. Use wall absorbers in situations where strong reflections occur. In particular the speech reflection from a person talking into a wall or glass panel can be very strong and affect the sound environment even in a large room. You can find certified wall absorbents at acousticfacts.com.  
3. Use floor or desk screens to shield a person seeking calmness from talking persons (or other noise sources). Screens might also contribute to the total absorption in the room if they are sound absorbing.   
4. Other furniture, such as sofas, chairs, lamps etc, can give important sound absorption in rooms where strategies 2 and 3 are not possible or enough.

It is the total amount of sound absorbers in the room that has to be considered, and the ceiling is usually contributing most. Different ceilings can be compared using the αw value. The N10 value can be used to compare different products that can be used in strategies 2 and 3. The lower the N10 value, the more efficiant speech absorbent. Read more about N10 here. 

When choosing furniture, check that they have been tested and certified! All the products on acousticfacts.com have been certified by a panel of experienced acousticians. Acoustic Facts is an independent evaluation and certification service for all types of acoustic absorbers e.g. sofas, screens, lamps and wall absorbers. If you are planning to buy products with acoustic abilites be sure to check out our "Buyers Guide", Swedish version or English version.

Log in to acousticfacts.com and calculate how many certified products you need in order to reach the right reverberation in your room. Doing it right from the start saves both effort and money.