Acoustic Rigid Baffles Improve Church Hall

For years, trustees of the Sudbury Memorial Congregational Church searched for an acoustic solution to an echo filled hall. They had a vision for the space to sound great and be lively for events and musical performances. They didn’t know where to turn, until they found DDS Acoustical Specialties who proposed the idea of Acoustic Rigid Baffles.

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The Noise Problem

The church hall was a room measuring 61″X39″X16″ for a total room volume 37,410 cubic ft. With exposed wooden beams in the ceiling, linoleum floors, glass and fiberboard, there were lots of reflective surfaces.

Running a RT60 reverberation calculation, we found that the room’s existing reverb time was approximately 3 seconds. For the purposes of the church hall we want to get the reverb time down closer to 1 second.

Another challenge was that the church wanted a solution that blended with the ceiling. They loved the look of the exposed wood.

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The Noise Solution – Acoustic Rigid Baffles and Wall Panels

In order to bring the existing reverb time of 3 seconds down to 1, we needed to introduce absorptive products. The products we used were Rigid Ceiling Baffles and Fabric Wrapped Fiberglass Wall Panels.

Acoustic Rigid Baffles

The Acoustic Rigid Baffles were the foundation of the project. We installed 141 baffles in the ceiling of the church hall between the wooden beams. This accounted for approximately 85% of the absorption needed in the space. In addition, the fabric color selected was the Guilford of Maine Goldenrod, which matched beautifully with the exposed ceiling. The baffles were hung in a pattern as to now crowd and still leaving plenty of visibility through to the ceiling.

Fabric Wrapped Fiberglass Wall Panels

In addition to baffles, we also utilized Fabric wrapped fiberglass wall panels throughout the space. This helped us to spread absorption not only on the ceiling but on the walls all around. This additional absorption along with the rigid baffles brought us down to our desired reverb time.

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Conclusion

With the addition of all the absorptive products we were able to reach our desired reverb time of 1 second in the church hall. Our calculation shows that this treatment has reduced the noise in the space by 4.68 decibels. Nearly a quarter of the sound reduced. We were also able to achieve an elegant look that the church was happy with.

I think all of us on the Trustees committee were holding our breath as to what the final outcome would be but in less than 4 days, DDS transformed our echo filled church hall into a wonderful space that can now be used by our music staff for many different events.

George Connor, Trustee Member