Simple Solutions That Will Improve the Acoustics of Your Conference Room

Posted by Kelly McCarthy on Feb 18, 2020 1:33:57 PM

Whether your organization is trying to impress a potential client or boost employee collaboration, your company’s conference room is an essential part of the experience when it comes to both internal and external communications.

High-quality conference rooms can create a culture of communication among your employees, boost collaboration and innovation, help you work better with remote workers, leave your clients with a great impression, provide a space for staff training and many other benefits.

One thing many companies struggle with, however, is bad acoustics.

Your conference room is used for important events such as staff training and key meetings with external stakeholders, it’s where ideas are born and profitability is improved. Not only that, but your business has probably implemented expensive audio visual (AV) technology into the room.

To make sure this technology holds its value and that everyone in your conference room is heard clearly, it’s absolutely essential that the acoustic conditions are up to scratch.

What causes bad acoustics?

Bad acoustics in a conference room can be caused by a variety of reasons, such as outside noise coming into the room, too many flat and hard surfaces, large screens and glass walls that create a high sound reverberation and much more.

The ideal environment to create in your conference room is something called “dry acoustics” - a room that is characterized by its short reverberation times. This will make speech in your conference room significantly easier to understand.

To help, Genesis Integration has listed a few simple solutions below that will help your company significantly enhance its conference room acoustics:

Add soft furniture and decor into the design of your conference room

Hard and flat surfaces help in the reflection of sound waves, which can turn your conference room into an echo chamber. To fix this acoustic issue, your business needs to install fabric and material that helps to absorb frequencies and stop them from reflecting back.

The addition of soft furniture will help you to reduce hard and flat surfaces in your conference room, meaning more sound is absorbed rather than reflecting back into the room. Soft furniture and decor that you can consider using include:

  • Cloth-covered chairs
  • Rugs and cover cloths
  • Curtains and drapes
  • Carpeted floors

Outside noise is a distraction

When outside noise enters your conference room, it can make speech significantly harder to understand clearly. You can block outside noise through soft background sounds created by solutions such as a white noise machine or a small water feature.

Minimalism isn’t always the answer

Modern offices are simple and minimalistic, and conference rooms even more so. However, minimally furnished rooms can actually contribute to poor sound quality since there is no furniture to absorb sound.

It’s important to soften and absorb the sound by adding furnishings to your conference room. You can do this through some simple additions such as plants, throw rugs and any other soft furnishings that match the conference room look that you want to achieve.

Use acoustic panels

Acoustic panels are incredibly important for conference rooms. Hanging baffle panels can be suspended perpendicular to the ceiling to act as a noise reduction and aesthetic solution in your conference room.

Meanwhile, artistic panels can be used to add an element of art into your conference room with the inner-acoustic layer inside of them helping to absorb noise. Acoustic panels can also be placed on doors for further sound absorption.

Are you looking for more information about improving the acoustics of your conference room, or simply want to enquire about innovative AV solutions that will significantly enhance your communication efforts? Contact Genesis Integration today. Our team of experts would be more than happy to answer any questions you have.

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Tags: Videoconferencing solutions

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