le défi:
La cafétéria polyvalente de de 2,400 pieds carrés de bas niveau de St. Michael’s Country Day School a souffert acoustiquement de haut temps de répercussion et de bruits de fond de hauts niveaux.
La raison : Le pont en béton exposé du plafond, les murs de cloison sèche, le vinyle sur le plancher de béton, les portes de bois vitrées, tous des éléments qui n’ont pas été conçus pour un contrôle acoustique du bruit à l’heure du dîner.
The Solution:
To help improve acoustics within the space, school officials decided to install OPTIMA CAPZ ceiling panels. The system is ideal for new construction, or to retrofit poor acoustically-performing spaces.
The panels feature a Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) of 0.90 and can be installed directly to the deck to maximize ceiling height or suspended with wires. At St. Michael’s, 35 large 4’ x 4’ panels were installed directly to the concrete deck in long runs between ribbons of linear light fixtures.
Aesthetically, the panels’ fine-textured surface helped impart a more finished look to the space while increasing light reflectance. Acoustically, the panels’ extremely high NRC significantly enhanced acoustics.
Before and after acoustical testing validated the improvement. Even though only about 23% of the ceiling area is covered, the added sound absorption provided by the OPTIMA CAPZ panels reduced reverberation time by 55%.
Panels also lowered the unoccupied background noise level by over 3 decibels. And, because students did not have to compete as much with neighboring conversations, they spoke in a softer tone, resulting in a decrease of 5 decibels in the occupied background noise level.
As second grade teacher, Kate Joubert, noted, “The sound level is much quieter and it’s easier to get the kids to respond. I don’t have to scream over them and I can talk in a normal voice. I don’t walk out of here with a headache anymore."