Acoustic refurbishment & acoustic optimisation
The transformation of warehouses into offices or restaurants, workshops into boutiques and country houses into conference centres – there are numerous examples of completely new fields of use for fine old properties that possess genuine charm.
There is often a wish to preserve the original atmosphere, but the new business involves having to adapt the sound environment accordingly - without using a wall-to-wall acoustic ceiling. Free-hanging sound absorbers are an excellent complement to wall-to-wall acoustical ceiling. They provide a practical, elegant solution to the problems of high sound pressure levels, long reverberation times and poor speech intelligibility
Free-hanging units are also the obvious choice in cases where the existing ceiling treatment does not fulfil the acoustical requirements and a change of ceiling is not possible. The sound absorbing free-hanging units provide the room with the required total of equivalent absorption area. The desired reverberation time or sound pressure level reduction can then be achieved.
In too many cases, inadequate ceiling solutions do not provide the absorption necessary to fulfil the acoustic requirements. Free-hanging unit provides the extra absorption that makes the vital difference.
SHELL experienced poor acoustics when the entire French organisation moved from their old cellular offices into a new office building outside Paris. An absorption class C ceiling resulted in complaints about high sound levels and disturbing noise. Since it was not possible to replace the whole ceiling, SHELL decided to add absorption with islands of free-hanging units in the open offices. Class A islands of Ecophon Focus Wing were chosen as the solution. Not as good as a wall-to-wall absorption class A ceiling, but the employees appreciated the changes. They experienced a physical as well as emotional improvement when they could see with their own eyes that management took important steps to improve the sound environment.