Classroom acoustics are becoming an important part of educational

requirements. If students cannot understand or clearly receive the

information being presented, this creates an overall disadvantage to the
student and is detrimental to the educational process.

Without appropriate acoustic treatments or the forethought during the construction phase, the
sound can be muddy, garbled or sound to boomy. To be able to share ideas and information,
one must at first be able to understand what was said. To understand the spoken word
accuratly, a room's reverberation needs to be at an acceptable level.

To be able to share ideas and information, one must at first be able to understand what was
said. To understand the spoken word accuratly, a room's reverberation needs to be at an
acceptable level.

Sound-reflecting surfaces like glass or concrete increase the time of reverberation. An effect
which is well sought for in cathedrals but not in offices where concentrated work is king.
However, when acoustics is well balanced in a space, the environment is optimized for the
users to enhance the overall wellness.

handle reverberation

time issues for noise-sensitive environments such as auditoriums, recording and broadcasting
studios, call centers, classrooms and

teleconferencing rooms

The current trend for open plan offices and large meeting / conference rooms brings with it an
acoustic issue - this being an overly echoey / reverberant sounding space, which in turn leads to
poor speech intelligibility in critical speech frequencies (500hz to 2khz).

Acoustical requirements vary with room size, shape and purpose.

Walls and ceilings reflect sound back into the room and block sound from passing through.

As mentioned earlier, good student behavior and attention in class are necessary to learning.
Bad acoustics make both harder. When the brain must sort the important information from
background noise, and try to guess missing words, it creates stress.
Stress can be manifested as bad behavior.

In summary, the classroom is most effective as a teaching environment when it is free of

interfering sound reflections (echo and reverberation), outside noise, and internal vibration.
When speech is clearly heard and understood, learning can begin.

it's the perfect acoustic fabric for offices, classrooms, conference centers or any area where
speech intelligibility is a critical factor.

. The question arises as to whether a building that is not comfortable acoustically, and therefore not fit
for its purpose, is actually a sustainable building for its occupants.

In post-occupancy surveys, the acoustic environment, specifically the

lack of adequate speech privacy and control of noise levels, has
been a major complaint with respect to the ability to carry
out work tasks.

Inappropriate levels of background noise, reverberation, and signal-tonoise ratios can also inhibit
reading and spelling ability, behavior, attention, concentration, and academic performance.

Loud or reverberant classrooms may cause teachers to raise their voices, leading to increased teacher
stress and fatigue

Excessive noise in schools has a negative impact on student learning and performance
Both the background noise level and the reverberation time should be controlled in classrooms
(Accredited Standards Committee..., 2002). Background noise can come from outside the school building
(road traffi c, air traffi c), outside the classroom (hallways, adjacent classrooms), or inside the classroom
(HVAC systems, instructional equipment, shuffl ing furniture). Consider the following measures to limit
the impact of background noise on the classroom environment.

Use trees, shrubs, earthen banks, and concrete barriers around school buildings to reduce the amount
of external noise entering classroom

Different rooms in schools (e.g., study, lecture halls, music halls, nurseries, auditoriums) require
different acoustic performance standards based on the room’s purpose (UK Department of Education
and Skills, 2003a). Large rooms (larger than 20,000 square feet; e.g., auditoriums) require different
acoustic design requirements than general classrooms, as they often differ in size, shape, and function

Movie theater –Hearing the sound track in the way the movie makers have intended it to be heard
•Concert hall –Good spatial impression (sound surrounds the listener), sense of intimacy, ”warm” sound
color, adequate clarity, etc. •Restaurant –Peacefull acoustical environment (communication from short
distance) •Open plan office –Speech sound distract concentration speech privacy between work places
•Factory –Noise level may cause hearing damage design of effective sound absorption and noise
blocking screens