SEP's challenge

SEP is the e-learning specialist for the government. They are located in a beautiful pavilion, surrounded by greenery, near Nijmegen. Although the location is beautiful, the acoustics in the building left much to be desired. Speech intelligibility was poor in both the office and during events and reverberation caused a lot of noise pollution. There were complaints about the echo and noise levels all over the building. Akoesta carried out acoustic measurements in various areas of the building. The results confirmed that the reverberation times were too high, making the spaces less suitable for meetings, working and staying. The employees' complaints were therefore supported by these objective acoustic measurements. The biggest challenge, from an acoustic point of view, was to improve the half-open core of the building with the dome ceiling so that it was suitable for (scrum) meetings. In addition, there were acoustic problems in various rooms with different functions, such as the scrum room, lunch room, kitchen, meeting room, recording studio and open office floor. Each space required a specific approach to improve acoustic conditions and create a comfortable working environment.

Because the acoustic problems occurred in multiple rooms with different functions, we used various acoustic materials and solutions: - A56 wall panels were installed in the scrum room to improve sound quality. - We hung specially custom-made panels made of recycled PET from Impact Acoustics “floating” on the dome ceiling. These floating panels enhance the acoustics - It works and also looks stylish. - For the lunch area, we used Impact Acoustics' acoustic Ceiling Panels Circle on the ceiling. In the kitchen, the basic A40 panels are attached to the ceiling. - In the recording studio, we completely covered a wall with an A56 wall panel and placed two ceiling panels directly above the speakers. The wall is covered with a double canvas, so that it does not only have to serve as a background.