How to Acoustically Treat a Village Hall
Village halls are the center of life in rural community, in every day use meeting the cultural, social, and sporting requirements of the neighborhood area. There is a large main room in most village halls, with smaller rooms nearby; together with a kitchen area. Also, few have a raised stage area for drama and music performances. Issues are created for users due to the various uses, particularly when the main hall is housing a noisy kid’s birthday party simultaneously as another room is being used for the Women’s Institute meeting. This will create issues with reverberation and echo and from activity of high intensity drowning out quieter pursuits, detrimental to all concerned.
The Problem
By their very nature, many village halls comprise of open, high, roofing spaces, usually with iron framework, or with plastered ceilings. Walls are usually made of breeze-block or brick, and floors, which can handle heavy traffic, made of varnished wood, vinyl-covered concrete, or tiles. These hard, acoustically reflective surfaces aggravate the problem to control noise levels in a multi-functional building, affecting spatial decay and speech clarity considerably. High-pitched and loud noise may have a reverberation time of up to 4.0 seconds. During this period speech becomes unclear in crowded rooms. The reverberation times desired in village halls may require being a compromise target for accommodating all users, but has to be considered for avoiding conflict between various user groups. For satisfying all users of the facility the reverberation times should overall be in the range of 0.5-1.5 seconds.
Solution
The solution is improving acoustic separation for all rooms using the materials to insulate, absorb sound, and reduce noise sufficiently to levels that all will accept. The materials used have to be aesthetically pleasing, complement the existing wall, and cost effective particularly if grants or community funding are being used. Acoustic wall and ceiling panels will reduce noise levels greatly.
Acoustic Panels
Acoustic panels could be attached to the complete ceiling or suspended as circular acoustic rafts. This creates a very pleasing effect and also acts as sound absorption baffles. Wall panels that are highly decorative are visually appealing, and improve social interaction and speech intelligibility in public spaces. Custom-printed, custom-made artwork could be attached to walls, along with fabric-wrapped acoustic panels that are site-built. For indoor sports and ball-game training use, you should consider special impact-resistant acoustic panels.
Conclusion
As you can see, depending on the general usage of the village hall there are many solutions that could be deployed. So, speaking to an expert for finding the solution most appropriate for your specific needs is always advisable.