Written by: AcousticAdmin
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 

Noise Reduction

The Problem:

Le Bistrot Pierre is one of a chain of lovely restaurants dotted about the country. Set in a modern building with views over the town, the setting is great and atmosphere lively. Unfortunately due to the hard, modern finishes, the restaurant suffered from poor acoustics within the space. Noise levels within the restaurant would soon become unpleasant if modern noise reduction techniques are not used.. There was a high level of reverberation resulting in ‘the cocktail party effect’ where a build-up of energy within the space results in people having to shout over it in order to overcome it – this in turn exacerbates the problem. This made it exceptionally difficult for anyone with less than perfect hearing to cope with speech or music within this environment.

Original Finishes of the Restaurant not offering any noise reduction.

The Solution - Noise Reduction:

The restaurant was due to be refubished  and noise reduction was important, however the owner was keen to ‘hide’ the acoustic solution as much as possible. Flush mounted acoustic ceiling panels were placed between the beams to be the same colour and similar finish and texture to the rest of the ceiling. Here, the acoustic solution was to be invisible!



Completed Installation of Ceiling Panels

The Results:

A Reverberation Time study of the hall was carried out and it was found that the values far exceeded the ideal.  This indicated the need for 170 acoustic absorption points to be added to the space appropriately to maximise noise reduction.


Effectiveness of the Solution – Comments by Staff

"So far, so good! The place is looking lovely and the noise is definitely greatly improved and the building and space feel “solid” rather than tinny. Thank you for all your help on this project."