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What We Do

Architectural Acoustics 

Architectural Acoustics is the analysis of the production and transmission of sound and vibrations in and through enclosed spaces and buildings, often referred to as ‘Room Acoustics’. 

Our objective is to achieve some appropriate amount of:

  • Acoustic control of a room, in conjunction with the client’s aesthetics
  • Acoustic treatments that maximize A/V system performance
  • Essential Speech Privacy to assure confidentiality and preserve productivity
  • Sound Isolation in or between adjoining spaces with respect to privacy and amplified A/V systems
  • Acoustic mitigation of open office areas

 

Our Solutions 

Incorporating Architectural Acoustics into Global’s portfolio allows us to create a complete end-to-end solution that permits our clients to maximize their technology investment without impacting the aesthetics of the space. As an acoustic adviser, we provide:

Room Acoustics

Architectural and design trends of hard surface rooms can lead to poor acoustics and speech intelligibility – known as the ‘Fishbowl’ effect.

We concentrate on optimizing Room Acoustics with specialty materials, transparent sound absorbers and camouflage solutions.

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Isolation Acoustics

We provide solutions which keeps private information from your meetings in the room.

  • Protection of private conversations
  • Containing amplified voice and A/V information in meetings
  • Isolation optimization through sound barriers and room ‘tightening’

EXCLUSIVE MATERIALS & SOLUTIONS

Audio Lab • Lecture Room

  • Closeup of a Custom designed and manufactured Barrel (polycyndrical) Scatterer and Wideband Absorber.
  •  The solution to a long parallel-walled lecture room where the instructors do not use voice amplification

Audio Lab • Lecture Room

  • Custom designed and manufactured Barrel (polycyndrical) Scatterer and Wideband Absorber.
  • The scatterers (that are not diffusers) respect the classic design of hemispherical (barrel-shaped) acoustic appliances.
  • The large appliances utilize a repeating but variably perforated thin wood skin face with a sealed cavity behind.
  • The cavity is filled with faced, high-mass mineral wool with a rear surface low-frequency membrane absorber.

Audio Lab • Lecture Room

  • Custom designed and manufactured vented ‘Pyramid Flat-Stack’ absorbers.
  • High-frequency scattering and Wideband Absorber.
  • The stepped pyramid shape aids in introducing geometry onto parallel facing walls or ceilings/floors.

Boardroom

  • DeAmp Transparent Sound Absorber Panels suspended in front of the west-facing exterior window (photo taken February late morning cloud covered light).
  • Custom top ‘cable panel grippers’ installed on interior window framing.

Boardroom

  • DeAmp Transparent Sound Absorber Panels with 3M film attached suspended in front of the interior hallway partition wall.
  • Custom top ‘cable panel grippers’ installed from the ceiling.
  • The slits in the DeAmp panels are cut vertically so they disappear into the 3M film pattern.

Wine Tasting Lab • Lecture Room

  • DeAmp Transparent Sound Absorber Panels suspended in front of the north-facing exterior window (the photo was taken in April late morning light).
  • Custom side and bottom mounting ‘channels’ installed on interior window framing.

Live Room

  • RealQuad 450™ 1D Quadratic Residue Diffusers, Prime 11 sequence.
  • Clear Alder veneer on Class “A” Fire-rated MDF.

Control Room • Classroom

  • Custom designed and manufactured ‘Pyramid Flat-Stack’ absorbers.
  • High-frequency scattering and Wideband Absorber.

Production • Writing Room

  • Real Acoustix™, GuD Panels™ (Geometric Uniform Diffuser)
  • Prime 19 sequence with asymmetric cells, an innovation to the standard quadratic residue diffuser
  • Painted Class ”A” Fire-rated MDF>

Areas of Focus

Meeting & Video Conferencing Rooms

Executive Private Offices

Open Offices

Atriums & Lobbies

Classrooms & Lecture Halls

Audio & Video Studios

Acoustic Treatment Corporate Boardroom

Want to speak with an acoustic advisor?

AHA Backdrop

Are you tired of having acoustic issues in your meetings?

Don’t want anyone to see your messy house?

Can’t hear your colleagues because the dog is barking too loud. Looking for a solution?

Introducing the AHA (At Home Acoustics) Backdrop.

AHA Backdrop Provides…

– A clean backdrop for your home workspace

– Improved speech clarity

– Sound absorption

AHA Backdrop Reduces…

– Window and light glare

– Background noise

… All with an easy, foldable setup!

Acoustic-Consultant

Our Partners

DeAmp

Global USS is the exclusive North American licensed manufacturer and master distributor of authentic DeAmp Panels.

RealAcoustix

Global USS is the exclusive Canadian distributor of RealAcoustix products.

Frequently Asked Questions About Acoustics

Q: Where can acoustic treatments be implemented? Is it only in new buildings?

A: This answer can be broken down into two sections – isolation and room acoustic treatments.

Isolation acoustic treatments

  • Should be accounted for during the design and planning stage of either renovation or new build projects.
  • This type of treatment is most often a material or design that will be incorporated into the wall, ceiling or entrance door assemblies that make up the room(s).
  • No matter the level of acoustic isolation that is required between adjoining spaces, the materials can easily be designed and built into the assemblies so they will be completely unseen.
  • Adding these materials after the walls, ceiling and entrance doors are already built and installed will present a challenge.  It can be done however it is typically more costly and typically will not perform to the same level of efficiency.

Room acoustic treatments

  • The limiting factor for this type of acoustic treatment is usually the client’s, Interior Designer’s or space planner’s aesthetic design.  We recommend that the room acoustic design is planned for at the same time as the finish design is being considered.
  • The use of all hard-surface materials in a space will greatly impact the room acoustics.
  • If the floor is hard, if there is an exterior half-wall of glazing, if there is an interior hallway wall full-height glass partition, if there is a drywall ceiling – these all hard surfaces will result in a considerable amount of reverberation in the room.
  • If all the walls are parallel with no or very limited design geometry – this will result in a build-up of reverberation in the room.
  • To address the hard surface reflections ‘some amount’ of absorptive material must be installed on these surfaces. The primary goal is to integrate these treatments into the decorative details of the design and room aesthetic without significantly changing the design intent.
Q: How much of the space do you treat?

A: The amount of space that needs to be treated is difficult to assess without seeing the space. The below factors will dictate the amount and type of treatment to be used.

  • How big is the room?
  • Does the room have high ceilings?
  • What is the rooms cubic volume?
  • What is the shape of the room?
  • Is it round?
  • What materials make up the walls, floor and ceiling surfaces?
  • What is the intended use of the room?
Q: How do you know that a space needs acoustic treatment?

A: There are both subjective observations and empirical testing that can be used to judge how ‘correct’ the acoustics are in a space:

  1. How we judge the “rightness or fittingness” of a room’s acoustics can be precisely designed and measured.
  2. However, most people do not become consciously aware of this room characteristic until the room has been built.
  • A simple subjective assessment of the room plans before the room is built will reveal if there will be a future problem.
  1. Are the surfaces in the room 50% or more hard surfaces?  If the answer is yes – there will be acoustic problems.
  2. If a room sounds even a little like what you experience in a fire-escape stair-well or parking garage – this is a problem.
  3. If a room has loud ambient (background) noise – this is a problem.
  4. Can you clearly hear when the HVAC system turns on/off?
  5. Is external noise – from other rooms, hallways or from the outside world – clearly heard in the room?
  • We also offer testing (with instrumentation) of spaces pre-installation of acoustic treatment – to clearly document the existing base-line acoustic problems.  These tests are conducted to ASTM or ISO international standards and so are not subjective but empirical.
  • After installation of the specified acoustic treatment(s?), re-testing of the space is also offered to gauge performance and to what extent the problems have been addressed. We recommend that three tests are conducted in most spaces.
  1. Background Noise
  2. Reverberation Time
  3. Speech Transmission Index

Have a project in mind?