The things we put into our bodies affect our health. It doesn't stop with food, drink, and air quality, either. Chronic exposure to noise can have harmful effects as well. As such, it's important to mitigate our exposure.
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The easiest environments for us to control are interior spaces. There are a number of products that we utilize to reduce indoor noise, and when it comes to acoustic panels benefits are plentiful. Sound absorbing panels offer benefits that combine form and function in ways few other acoustical products can. So, how effective are sound panels? Let's begin with a quick rundown on what they are and how they function.
Acoustic panels are decorative panels that we use to improve the acoustics in interior spaces. They do this by trapping sound waves in their porous cores, preventing the reflections that cause acoustical issues.
Acoustic panels may be mounted to walls or partitions and can even be suspended from ceilings. Their best placement depends largely on your use case. No matter where they're placed, the benefits of absorbing panels are that they trap unwanted sound waves and reduce the occurrence of acoustical issues.
Most of the acoustical issues we face indoors can be attributed to sound waves that bounce off of hard, reflective surfaces and return into the open space. By absorbing them, we reduce the likelihood and impact of acoustical problems. The main issues we encounter are echo and reverberation.
Echo is caused when a sound wave travels across space, reflects off a hard surface, and returns to the source. The repeated sounds we hear can make it difficult to communicate clearly by competing with speech. They can even amplify in volume if too many reflections are present.
Reverberation, or reverb, is a buildup of reflected sound waves in a space. Those waves have an additive effect, and become louder as more reflections are added to the equation. As the room becomes louder, the people inside generally speak louder to compensate, adding to the overall room volume.
All of this translates into excess noise and acoustical issues that can lead to communication breakdown, increased stress, and even health problems if left untreated. Utilizing acoustic panels benefits us in a number of ways. Let's look at the top five.
While there are numerous benefits of acoustic panels, we're going to focus on the top five. These benefits concern protecting our health, hearing, and our ability to communicate with friends and family. Some will even encompass a variety of benefits that enhance our lives in multiple ways.
The first thing you'll notice with acoustic panels is an improvement in the acoustic quality of the space. Utilizing acoustic panels benefits us in this arena by introducing the soft, absorbent materials into interior spaces that trap excess sound waves and prevent reflections.
This enhances the space by improving the sound of our music and movies, making communication more effective, and by providing more peace and quiet in our lives. These are all things we can use in today's busy world, and acoustic panels provide them nicely.
Acoustical issues can cause communication breakdowns if we don't recognize and address them. Repeated speech in the form of echo, as well as increased room volume due to reverberation, both make it harder to communicate clearly. Reduced volume and competition are some of the wonderful acoustic panels benefits where communication is concerned.
Another one of the great benefits of using acoustic panels is compliance. Acoustic panels help keep noise from traversing walls and affecting the neighbors. They do this by reducing the overall volume in the room, reducing the amount of noise that needs to be contained. Not only does this allow you to maintain positive relations with the neighbors, but it also keeps you on the right side of building codes and regulations.
Most home and office buildings designed to house multiple tenants have codes and regulations in place to reduce noise from traveling between one unit and the next. Adhering to them makes everyone happy.
Next, we've got to cover the health benefits. Reducing noise in interior spaces delivers a host of health benefits and the go-to solution audio professionals turn to for effective acoustic design is the acoustic panel. Here's how chronic noise can impact your health.
First, chronic exposure to noise can have adverse effects on your ability to hear. It can make it harder to communicate in the short term, but it can seriously damage your hearing in the long run. Reducing ambient noise reduces the need to compensate for it when we speak and prevents the room from becoming even louder. All this helps protect our hearing.
Another health benefit associated with noise reduction is a reduction in stress levels. Stress can mimic a number of different health problems, and can have serious health implications if you don't take steps to reduce stress in your life. Luckily, reducing your exposure to noise is a fantastic way of doing just that.
Noise can also make us irritable. Combine that with elevated stress levels and you've got a recipe for high blood pressure and heart problems. Reducing noise levels with acoustic panels benefits us in so many ways, it's become standard practice in offices all across the country.
Chronic exposure to unwanted noise can cause a lot of problems, and in the workplace, one of the most impactful ones is lost productivity. When noise pollution reaches the point of communication issues and increasing stress levels, it will also affect our ability to concentrate and focus. This very often leads to decreased productivity and increased agitation levels.
Utilizing acoustic panels benefits the whole office by reducing the noise that negatively impacts our productivity. Not only do we see stress levels decline due to reduced ambient noise, but we also see them decline due to an increased ability to focus and hit deadlines.
Noise reduction panels offer benefits to suit all needs. Some deliver a high end look, while others are rugged enough to stand up to moisture and impact. No matter what type of environment you work in, there's an acoustic panel to serve your purposes.
One of the largest reflective surfaces in any office is the ceiling. It's usually the biggest stretch of uninterrupted space, and often reflects speech and impact sounds back down into neighboring spaces. Suspending acoustic panels from the ceiling can minimize this. Utilizing acoustic panels benefits the office by keeping conversations private and allowing everyone to communicate with ease.
Acoustic panels are available in a vast array of colors and configurations, meaning you'll find something to improve your acoustics without sacrificing aesthetics. Whether you want to mount them on walls, cubicle dividers, or suspend them from ceilings, the addition of acoustic panels benefits the aesthetics as well as the acoustics.
If you're looking for a complete solution for your office space, there are a number of complementary products that will help you get the most out of your custom acoustical design. They include products that add mass and density to your walls and ceilings for soundproofing and absorption solutions for every surface in the space.
If you don't know whether to go with green glue or mass loaded vinyl for your soundproofing project, we can help. Maybe a simple set of acoustic panels benefits your space the best. We can guide your setup for the best results possible.
Acoustic panels are large, soft-furnished panels that can be strategically placed within rooms to improve sound quality by absorbing reflected sound or echoes.
They can be made from a vast array of materials such as a combination of foam and fabric, PET Eco Felt, Wood Wool, or biophilic elements like cork or moss. The acoustic panels can be made into a range of shapes and sizes and customised to complement the design of your space.
The main purpose of acoustic panels is to remove residual sound in any space. When installed correctly in a room, acoustic panels can absorb or diffuse sound from the first point of reflection.
The effectiveness of good quality acoustic panels means that you can use far less so that you're not at risk of over-cluttering areas and spaces.
Here at Sound Zero, we've designed high-quality panels to target broadband frequencies, meaning that they can be used for a range of purposes.
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Key Points:
Acoustic Panels can be designed as absorbers or diffusers, depending on the intended purpose and outcome that you're trying to achieve.
Absorbers and diffusers are the main design tools for altering the acoustic conditions of rooms, semi-enclosed spaces and the outdoor environment. Their correct use is essential for delivering high-quality acoustics, so it's always best to speak to an expert to help you decide which products are best for your room.
Throughout our in-depth consultation process, our experts will outline the best solution for you, but as a general rule.
Acoustic panels can be effectively utilised in a range of spaces, for example, restaurants, bars, offices and music venues.
As you might imagine, each space has its unique requirements, but they are all rooted in the need to improve sound quality and intelligibility.
As an example, open-plan office environments may have a designated area for the telesales or telemarketing department. Such environments involve loud conversations and ample opportunities for distraction.
When people are communicating in such proximity, acoustic panels which are placed in a particular area will help to localise the noise, keeping it contained.
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We touched briefly on this in the introduction, but smaller acoustic panels like the Wall Panel Pro or ceiling panels (baffles, grids, or rafts) are the ideal solution if you're short on wall space.
Many offices and restaurants that we visit have a strong brand image which is often reflected in the wall décor that is chosen. The last thing they want is unattractive panels being placed on the walls.
Acoustic panels are fantastic because you don't need to cover a whole wall space to acoustically solve the noise complaint. Our experts will identify the first point of reflection, which will inform them of the best location to place the wall panel.
What's more, our panels have been developed with design in mind. We pride ourselves on delivering a strong, visual impact, incorporating your brand's image within our design process.
There really is no need to compromise on your image in order to solve your noise issue.
Bad acoustics are the result of a large, untreated hard surface area (walls, floors, ceiling, windows) and quite often, the largest, hardest surface area is the ceiling.
Air ducts and wiring tracks often prevent us from directly treating the ceiling's surface, meaning that suspended acoustic panels are a great solution.
And as well as saving that much-valued wall space, they have a strong visual impact.
Suspended acoustic panels reinforce what's known in the science world as the 'proximity effect'. In getting closer to the noise source at varying heights, the suspended panels are targeting and suppressing different frequencies.
Numerous venues have incorporated this methodology into their acoustic design; most notably, the Royal Albert Hall. Using convex reflectors suspended at various heights, the venue can tackle the room resonance, whilst delivering an unmatched quality of sound.
Music and concert venues are perfect examples of how you can 'tune' suspended acoustic panels to improve the experience of the consumer.
Commonly, acoustic panels are made from a timber frame with varying layers of acoustic foam.
Foam is the best material to use for an acoustic panel because it completely absorbs frequencies on the surface, so you get a resonance happening inside the cavity.
Therefore, above the cavity, you get noise cancellation. This is known as Helmholtz resonance.
Blending acoustics and art, our popular Wall Panel Pros ensure that your acoustics are effectively addressed whilst adding a splash of artistic design to your walls.
Easily customisable, we can use your own images and impose them on a fabric-wrapped acoustic panel, or choose a hard acrylic front with a cutaway design.
Wall Panel Pros are the ideal solution for music studios, offices, bars, restaurants and conference rooms.
If you're aiming to incorporate biophilic principles into your building design, the Acoustic Moss Wall panel is the ideal solution for you. Moss acts as a natural sound absorber, which is ideal for any busy space, especially in open-plan areas.
We've written at length about the benefits of these; just look above. They're a superb product, rooted in strong scientific understanding.
Acoustic panels provide numerous benefits, for example:
We hope that this blog has outlined some of the fundamental aspects of acoustic panelling solutions. If you require any further assistance, don't hesitate to talk to one of our experts today.