Home cinema and recording studio

Floor-standing speakers produce resonance and noise that is thrown backwards, hitting reflective surfaces and travelling around the room. This results in a poor overall sound image in the room. Most loudspeaker cabinets are unable to absorb and prevent this in themselves, and the problem can be remedied by installing absorption behind the speakers.

If, for space reasons, the speakers need to be placed closer to the back wall than approx. 50 cm, an absorber behind them can therefore be an advantage, especially if the speakers have a bass port behind them. In general, our experience is that the sound quality in most rooms is improved by installing absorbers behind floorstanding speakers.

By using an absorber that has a high density (density) and is not too thick, different absorption capacities can be achieved by varying the distance between the absorber and the wall with a slope.

Especially at lower frequencies, the absorber will reduce resonance if you have more air behind it. This gives you the opportunity to experiment and find the "slope" you find best suited to the room and the music system you have. This is also very much a matter of personal preference.

In the rest of the room, a good sound image is facilitated through appropriate placement of absorption and diffusion on the walls and ceiling.

In rooms where there is activity and a desire for good attenuation and shielding of sound, it is important to have a lot of and correct sound attenuation, known in technical terms as sound absorption.

Most rooms tend to have hard, parallel walls and surfaces, which causes reverberation (echo). And in some cases, the sound "bounces" between the walls, known as "flutter echo".

There are of course special requirements for sound studios (see separate text). Video conference rooms have requirements according to NS8175:2019. NS8175:2019, while home cinema and TV rooms in private homes have no legal requirements, but need good sound damping and the right acoustics for a good experience.

Reverberation and flutter echoes are eliminated by installing absorbers at "speaking height" on the walls and ceiling. At the same time, Acoustic partitions are well suited to attenuate directional sound (extra attenuation) in rooms used for both meeting rooms and video conferencing rooms.

After carrying out a large number of measurements, calculations and installations, we have learnt that this type of room needs a coverage ratio of approx. 70% in relation to floor area to be good and usable rooms. If there is extra height under the ceiling, greater coverage is often required.

A combination of sound-absorbing ceilings, sound-absorbing absorbers on the walls, carpets and special sound-absorbing furniture and pictures/decorations can be realised "everywhere" and to such an extent that the conditions are very good for the users.

The formula is as follows
The room's m² / 100 x experience-based coverage of 70% = X m² 

Example
The room is 75 metres² / 100 x 70% = approx. 52.5 m² absorbers are needed in the room.

This is, of course, a rough and experience-based approach. To be more precise, you need to carry out acoustic measurements in the area and base exact calculations on that.

If this simple procedure is not good enough for your needs or wishes, we offer exact measurements and calculations in accordance with current rules and regulations as set out in NS8175, NS8178 and TEK 10/17.

See more information about sound measurement below.

We help you from start to finish and deliver complete and effective solutions. From acoustic measurement, remote assessment, calculation of needs, solution and product proposals and installation. Read about the whole process here