How does sound reflect? And how can we prevent this?

Everyone has experienced it at least once. An enormous reverberation in a room, despite the beautiful decor. It is common in work environments and offices that are decorated with hard materials such as concrete and glass. The annoying reverberation is caused by sound reflection. With a good approach, reverberation can be eliminated and employees can work with greater acoustic comfort in the workplace. And that leads to greater happiness at work and increases productivity.

‍

What does sound reflection mean?

Sound waves are reflected from walls, for example. Sound waves of different directions and intensities can be generated in a room. The reflected sound field generally helps us to perceive distance and direction. But it can be extremely confusing when the sound has a long reverberation time: it interferes with the original sound, drastically affecting audibility and quality. When we talk about the acoustics of a room, it's actually about how the sounds bounce back. The classic, square rooms perform the worst, while the acoustics, for example, are significantly better in arched, round rooms. In a room with good acoustics, the sounds you want to hear are emphasized while absorbing unwanted sounds. Due to the use of many hard materials in the construction and design of spaces, acoustics are often not good these days. This includes materials such as concrete, glass or laminate. There are many solutions to improve this.

‍Materials that absorb sound waves

Sound absorption helps improve acoustics. This means that you try to prevent the reflection of the sound in various ways, reducing the risk of echo development. To achieve this, we used materials that can absorb sound waves. When you walk into a movie theater, you've probably noticed that you suddenly hear completely different sounds: everything is considerably quieter, more subdued, duller. Of course, this is no coincidence, because this is where the sound is absorbed so that the sounds of the film are sharp and audible.

‍How do you prevent sound reflection?

There are various ways to prevent sound reflections. Reverberation develops partly due to the large, empty surfaces against which the sound can bounce back. If tall furniture is placed, curtains on the windows, carpets on the floor and paintings or shelves on the wall, the reflection is already greatly reduced. This is already a good start, but in many cases this is not enough and more solutions are needed. This includes the installation of acoustic materials. Depending on the situation, you can opt for acoustic wall panels, acoustic ceiling panels, acoustic desk panels whether acoustic room dividers. Also the installation of bell cells, meeting cubes or even acoustic lighting can make a difference.

‍What is the best position for acoustic panels?

In most cases, it makes sense to focus on large, empty surfaces from which sounds can bounce back. In cinemas, for example, you can see walls covered with acoustic wallcoverings. Ceiling panels are often also installed to eliminate echoes.

‍

Akoesta's approach

Every situation and space is different and requires a specific approach. Akoesta has an effective approach that covers all aspects of improving acoustics. Learn more about our unique approach and our solutions and products to optimize workplace acoustics? Our expert team is here for you. Feel free to take contactIt's up with us!

‍

Want to know more about acoustics and sound? Then go to our acoustics knowledge base. You can find information about it, for example reverberation time, speech intelligibility, sound absorption and Soundproofing.

‍