OWA suspended ceilings acoustic fibre metal entrance ceilings

The average noise level in a room is dependent on the sound source and the sound absorption. Increasing the absorption within the room will generally reduce the noise level, in practice by approximately 3 to 10 dB.

Double or Nothing

To achieve an audible improvement the absorption within a room has to be increased by a factor of 2. Therefore, an increase of the absorption of the ceiling from 20% to 40% or from 40% to 80% is advisable, an increase from 70% to 80% will show very little, if any, noticeable improvement.

High absorption is not always good

It is important to take into consideration all of the surfaces within a room to ensure that the correct balance between absorption and reflection is achieved. Too much absorption in a room can be as bad as not enough. The addition of a mineral wool overlay can improve the room to room insulation value of an OWAcoustic ceiling by approximately 2 dB per 10 mm. Janus is a special ceiling tile designed to provide sound insulation of up to 49 dB in any of the available surface patterns. Using a pattern such as Harmony or Futura the optimum levels of both

absorption and insulation can be achieved (more details see leaflets no. 570 and 557).

Speech can only be heard clearly if background noise is controlled or kept to a minimum. The best way to achieve this is to ensure the correct balance between sound and reverberation.

If used in conjunction with a hard, acoustically reflective ceiling, acoustic screens may be ineffective and have little effect in providing any privacy. However, an absorbent ceiling will complement the screen and assist in maintaining a much higher degree of acoustic separation when installed in an office where screens are used.