Acoustic construction

Acoustic performance is decided in construction, not in furnishing. A room that has to hold sound in needs mass and separation; a room that has to sound right inside needs absorption placed where it earns its keep. Most rooms need both, resolved together with the interiors, the services and the structure — which is why we take the whole package rather than a part of it.

• Acoustic panels — absorption panels, ceilings and wall panelling, baffle beams, enclosures.
• Doors and windows — acoustic door sets, glazed assemblies, fixed and sliding partitions.
• Sound and vibration control — isolators, floating floors, dance floors.
• Air movement and conditioning — HVAC attenuation, acoustic louvers, silencer selection.

1. Background noise and reverberation measured in the existing shell.
2. The room modelled against its intended use, in our own lab.
3. Construction drawn against the architecture and the services.
4. Fabrication and installation by our own crews.
5. Measurement on handover, reported against the target.

Almost every disappointing room fails for one of a handful of reasons, and none of them is the panel specification: a partition stopped at the ceiling instead of the slab; a door with no seal at the floor; a duct crossing two rooms without an attenuator; a floated floor bridged by a pipe. These are details, they are cheap while the ceiling is open, and they are expensive afterwards. Catching them is most of what our site supervision is for.

Acoustics, audio, video, lighting, HVAC and interiors are one problem. We show the system, not the box.

Where an architect and main contractor are appointed, we work as a specialist package inside their programme. Where it suits the client, we take design, construction, interiors and systems on a single turnkey contract. For the discipline as a whole, see acoustics.