Large Room Acoustical Treatment Basics - House of Worship, Auditoriums and Commercial Spaces

A large room is defined as any space exceeding approximately 10,000 cubic feet in size, such as a commercial space, a house of worship, an auditorium, or a similar venue.

When addressing acoustic issues in large rooms, several key factors must be considered. In most cases, the most important thing is to achieve a manageable reverberation time (RT60). This is determined in part by the surface materials, occupancy, type of seating, and the intended use of the space. With the proper use of absorption and diffusion products, a manageable RT60 can be achieved.

FAQs Referenced in this Article

• Glossary of Acoustical Terms

What is RT60?

RT60, or reverberation time, is the duration in seconds it takes for the sound energy in a room to decrease by 60 decibels (dB) after the sound source has been turned off.

For our purposes, it is a way to measure and quantify how usable a space is for a given application. You’ll find various graphs of usable RT60 online. Still, in most spaces, it typically ranges between approximately 0.8 and 1.5 seconds at 500Hz (our target frequency, as it is crucial for speech intelligibility), depending on the space's size, surface materials, and usage.

Methodology

We use proprietary documents to perform the actual calculation, but for reference, you typically need about a 10% coverage to notice a real difference in a room. This can vary depending on how bad the space is. To determine this, the best place to start is in the surface materials

A room with mostly hard, reflective surfaces requires more treatment than a drywall room with a drop-tile ceiling and carpeted floor; a conference room filled with glass requires more treatment than one without windows. The larger and more reflective the space is, the more treatment it will need.

Treatment

The most commonly used piece of treatment for a large room scenario is the Auralex ProPanel™. These are available in a variety of sizes and fabrics to accommodate any scenario. These panels offer high-quality performance and easy installation to help address typical acoustic problems in large rooms. Additionally, products such as ProBanners™ and ProBaffles™ can be used in gymnasiums and other industrial spaces to provide larger-format absorption where needed.

In certain large room scenarios, there are a couple of other things that can be as or more important than the reverb time alone. These issues primarily concern the dB level and efforts to reduce the sound in the room. This is most commonly needed in places such as bars, restaurants, and band practice rooms. For more information on resolving this issue, please refer to our room analysis process or contact us.

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Do you need some help or tips to get the best sound out of your room? Auralex can help! Questions?

Email support@auralex.com or give us a call: 1-800-959-3343