Knightwood Primary was first created as a school in September 1998. They occupy a state of the art building consisting of a hall, office accommodation, library, IT Suite, music room, food technology area, a pond and 14 classrooms.
However, the uniquely shaped, spacious hall was causing acoustic issues for the teaching staff and pupils and needed to be dealt with. After commissioning an acoustic report on the hall, it was found that it did not meet the current acoustic standards set out in BB93 – Acoustic Design of Schools.
Acoustic Consultants, 24 Acoustics, measured an RT (Tmf) of 3.61 seconds and recommended that a figure of RT (Tmf) 1.2 seconds was targeted to bring the hall up to standard.
Acoustic absorption specialists, Sound Reduction Systems Ltd, were contacted for further advice and arranged a free of charge site visit and consultation to discuss the treatments available. Due to the unique and dramatic dimensions of the hall, it was very important to the school that certain aspects were left untouched, such as the vast, curved, timber-panelled ceiling. A number of various options were discussed before settling on a wall only treatment using a combination of coloured and printed Sonata Vario acoustic panels to create a striking overall effect. The coloured panels mirror the school’s colour scheme and the printed panels feature the school logo and various pictures of the children.
The finished treatment is not only practically effective, reducing the reverberation time to the desired level, but also aesthetically pleasing, and a real feature piece to complement the wider design of such a modern school.
After the installation had been competed, School Business Manager, Sue Mussell, commented:
"I just wanted to say how pleased we are with our hall. You have been very helpful, efficient, knowledgeable and accommodating throughout the whole process. The fitting team were fantastic - they made sure we were happy with each stage of the installation and worked so hard to deliver a great finished result. Thank you very much, we really appreciate all that has gone into this whole process"
SRS are specialists in school acoustics and offer free advice and site visits and quotes to any school with sound absorption problems. You can read project profiles and testimonials from satisfied schools on the website. If your school has a noise problem that would benefit from soundproofing or other sound absorption, please get in touch on 01204 380074, email info@soundreduction.co.uk or visit the website www.soundreduction.co.uk
