Acoustic correction intervention – Restaurant
The problem of glare in restaurants is now well known and recognized as a factor that negatively affects the quality of service.
A real nuisance, which goes to affect the relaxation of the moment of break and leisure.
What exactly takes place?
As anticipated in our article Acoustic Comfort: a step toward success, “when the sound wave collides with a surface and comes back, the phenomenon of reflection occurs. If the incident wave and the reflected wave overlap, they give rise to reverberation.”
The glare at the restaurant
The presence of many speaking users divided into different groups (tables) generates constant background noise (reverberation), which prompts each speaker to gradually raise the pitch of his or her voice in order to address the listener sitting at the same table.
Consequential behavior that triggers a ripple effect called the “cocktail party effect.”
What is the cocktail party effect?
The cocktail party effect is the ability of the user to focus on a single auditory stimulus while filtering out a range of other noises and sounds.
In the case of the restaurant, the listener focuses his or her auditory attention on the user speaking at his or her own table, to the exclusion of all other conversations within the environment.
Thus, constant engagement is “imposed” on the user, which generates fatigue, stress, and the negative memory of the experience.
For this reason, it is very important to assess whether or not there is a need for acoustic correction intervention.
The intervention
La Greppia restaurant, in Civitanova Marche in the province of Macerata, contacted us about a major reverberation problem. Therefore, our goal was to design an acoustic remediation intervention in order to provide customers with a comfortable listening quality appropriate to the pleasant reality of good local food.
The project proposal
An initial inspection allowed us to survey the measurements necessary for the formulation of the best design proposal. In addition, we were able to assess the types of surfaces present, including the ceiling on which we decided to intervene.
In fact, the acoustic correction intervention is aimed at eliminating or reducing “reflective” surfaces through the application of sound-absorbing solutions that can capture the sound wave without rolling it back.
In this way it is possible to ensure good intelligibility of the conversations taking place at each table present.
For this newly renovated restaurant, we designed a solution that does not impact the present furniture.
In particular, we chose the Oversize sound-absorbing panel in the Ceiling version, thus suspended from the ceiling. This was possible because this particular version of Oversize is equipped with cables that enable its height adjustment. Each panel measures 159cm x 119cm.
We chose the color white for the sound-absorbing panels and installed them by filling the “natural” niches in the ceiling, thus achieving a visually restrained but acoustically effective effect.
Finally, for the only wall application we made, we selected the Snowsound Art panel depicting a drawing by Gillo Dorfles. A real painting with important sound-absorbing capabilities.
