Gymnasiums are notorious for bad acoustics. The issues include;
1) All the surfaces are hard, including the floor.
Most other spaces, if you think about it, at least have some carpet on the floor or a drop tile (absorptive) ceiling. In addition gyms walls are generally all cement block to endure the use of sports events.
While drywall is still very reflective, cement is sonically more reflective at most frequencies.
2) There is little or no seating. Even a hard room with padded seats would at least break up some sound waves as they travel about the room.
3) Any adjacent stage area contributes to amplification of reflective sound energy.
4) Open HVAC system designs are loud. Most gyms have the roof top units simply mounted on top of the roof without any consideration of decoupling them from the structure. Any vibration from the furnace / air conditioning unit is transmitted directly to the roof decking. When the unit starts up it is often very noticeable.
All this means a large volume room typically with no absorptive surfaces. Gyms therefore, have lots of echoes or high-powered reflections, a long reverb time and high power standing waves that are in the low frequency domain. Any combination of these issues means a loud room with poor intelligibility for speech. Any musical presentation is muddy and hard to make clear, even with good sound equipment.
Acoustical Fundamentals
The acoustical environment of the room described above needs attention in the right areas. If hard surfaces are reflecting dominant frequencies they need to be reduced. The offending frequencies need to be determined to develop a treatment best suited to the space.
Fundamental frequencies are in the low / bass frequency range. They are large and powerful. As a result they also excite adjacent, upper harmonic frequencies. If there are issues in these frequency areas (e.g 200 or 500 Hz) you need to break them down and reduce their power by the correct form of treatment.
Many rooms like this have some form of absorption or sound panels. While this will be helpful to reduce the mid and upper harmonic frequencies the lower, more powerful fundamental frequencies remain untouched. This will result in a room that is boomy or muddy and still loud and basically unintelligible.
Without dealing with the offending powerful, low frequencies the space will not have the ability to carry on any clear communication. This is regardless of how much absorbing material is installed. In fact, adding too much absorption can make a room worse since speech intelligibility and pronunciation of consonants resides in the higher frequency range. Hence this removes needed clarity.
Absorption is available in many forms but it is usually a flat panel that is generally made of a fibre glass, mineral wool of foam that capture air /sound energy. This energy is then converted into heat. The amount of energy decrease (attenuation) is determined by the size, density and thickness of the panel. If an air space is placed behind the panel it can be effective an additional octave lower.
Absorption panels are only yield results for the space they cover. If you have a wall surface causing reflection problems, you generally have to cover the width of the entire wall and the required height causing the issue.
An Intriguing factor that determines the rate of absorption is the angle of the sound impacting the acoustical panel. At 90 degrees you will most likely get the performance the flat panel is rated for. At greater angles you will get much more performance which results in more absorption than what was specified. This always results in an over dampened room that not only reduces the noise but it makes speech more difficult to hear. For example a two inch (5 cm) panel may give you 6dB of performance (reduction) at 4000 hertz at 90 degrees of sound impact. In comparison at 45 degrees in and 135 degrees out, you will get 6dB at 2000 hertz. These specifications may sound great, but this can over absorb the 2000 - 4000 range when the problem in the room is actually excessive energy at 500 hertz. To attenuate into the 500 Hz range you would need panels two feet (60 cm) thick.
Diffusion doesn't just absorb sound waves but it also scatters them. This redirects problem reflections and minimizes them, while at the same time leaving a natural sound in the space. This occurs at all frequencies, especially in the bass, fundamental frequency range, which is harder to control and reduce or attenuate.
There are numerous forms of diffusion available and most are more costly than absorption. CS Acoustics uses a diffusion system that uses multiple units in tandem with each other and the surrounding surface. As a result we are able to use a much smaller surface area foot print than absorption panels and yield a greater amount of reduction at a competitive price.
Assessing the Intended Use
If you only use your gym for sports perhaps this is not a concern, however communication of game plans or other instructions must be given with a loud voice of or an even louder PA. Just because the volume is increased it doesn’t mean hearing clarity is improved.
For any sports participant who struggles with hearing or sensory issues (e.g. Autism Spectrum or Central Auditory Processing, etc) this experience is frustrating, humiliating and anything but desirable and encouraging and will in all probability lead to behavioural issues.
If you use a space such as this for plays, meetings or assemblies, it will be detrimental to any intended form of communication. The ambient level (loudness) alone is fatiguing, distracting and agitating. For those hard of hearing often more than one word out of five is not understood. Music can be muddy, unbalanced and distorted even with appropriate sound equipment with competent operators.
Impact of Acoustical Treatment
Balanced acoustics in a space of this design allows for more flexible use over the lifespan of the building. A gym could now be used for many other types of events including drama, meetings, etc. A quieter gym can also produce better athletes through more productive training times with less distraction and behavioural issues.
We accomplish this by applying the correct amount of diffusion in addition to the required absorption. The result is typically a room that is 10 - 20 dB quieter and speech is so clear that you can hear a conversation from one end of the room to the other!
For further information on this unique system and approach, please contact us!
Innovative Acoustical Solutions