Overview
A large room is any room above approximately 10,000 cubic feet in size, such as a commercial space, church, auditorium, or similar venue.
When dealing with large room acoustic issues, there are a couple factors to consider. The most important thing in most cases is to reach a manageable reverberation time (aka RT60). This is determined in part due to the surface materials, occupancy, type of seating, and the application of the space. With proper usage of absorption and diffusion products, a manageable RT60 can be reached.
FAQs Referenced in this Article
What is RT60?
RT60 is the amount of time it takes for a sound to lose 60 dB of volume in a given space. For our purposes, it is a way of measuring and quantifying how usable a space is for a given application. You’ll find various graphs of usable RT60 around the internet, but in most spaces it will vary between around a .8 and a 1.5 seconds at 500Hz (which is our target frequency because it is important for speech intelligibility) depending on size, surface materials, and usage.
Methodology
We use some proprietary documents to do the actual calculation, but for reference, you tend to need to have about a 10% coverage to notice a real difference in a room. This can vary depending on how bad the space is. To determine this, the best place to start is in the surface materials
A room that is mostly hard, reflective surfaces needs more treatment than a drywall room with drop-tile ceiling and carpeted floor; a conference room filled with glass requires more treatment than one without windows. The larger and more reflective the space is, the more treatment it will need.
Treatment
The most commonly used piece of treatment for a large room scenario is the Auralex ProPanels. These are available in a variety of sizes and fabrics to accommodate any scenario. These panels offer high quality performance and easily installation to help fix typical large room problems. In addition, products such as ProBanners and ProBaffles may be used in gymnasium and more industrial type spaces to offer larger format absorption in spaces that need it.
In certain large room scenarios there are a couple other things that can be as or more important than the reverb time alone. These issues mainly revolve around dB and trying to quiet down the sound level in the room. This is most commonly needed in places such as bars, restaurants, and band practice rooms. More can be found out about how to fix this in our room analysis process and by calling us!
Need some help or tips to get the best sound out of your room? Auralex can help! Questions?
Email help@auralex.com or give us a call: 1-800-959-3343
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