Architectural/Church Case Study

client: holy spirit catholic church

Problem

Holy Spirit Catholic Church requested a solution be provided to increase speech intelligibility in their church interior. The issue was due to excessive reverberation time caused by the amount of hard surfaces inside the church. The hard surfaces would reflect sound energy rather than absorb it. The reflected sound energy would build up in the space, and had the effect of masking the speaker during religious services.

Solution

The most effective solution was determined to be the addition of sound absorption panels. The panels were developed by measuring the reverberant time, and determining the RT60 of the space. Mathematical modeling was used to determine how much absorbant material would be needed to reduce the RT60 of the room. Once the quantity of panels necessary to reduce the RT60 was determined, the panels were installed in locations to maintain the aesthetics of the church while improving the acoustics.

report

A report was created to inform the client of all the findings, as well as the recommendations to mitigate the noise. Click the PDF link on the left to view the report.