The benefits of using acoustic materials in commercial interiors are closely related to the intended use of these facilities. The use of acoustic materials has the effect of reducing reverberation time, increasing speech intelligibility and minimizing reverberation noise in the interior.
It is important to consider for which rooms good speech intelligibility is important.

According to PN-B-02151-4 these are:

• school rooms and studios,
• auditoriums,
• auditoriums, lecture halls in primary, secondary and university schools,
• courtrooms, conference halls, auditoriums, etc,
• conference rooms, auditoriums, etc.

It should be noted that the requirements for speech intelligibility take precedence over the reverberation time criterion.

Design practice indicates that the following areas can also be added to the group:

sports halls in schools and sports centers,
Railroad stations,
churches.

Reverberation noise causes communication path errors, faster fatigue, distraction, hinders learning and work. It is also very unfavorable for convalescing patients in hospitals. It is worth noting that a noisy room increases loud behavior, which negatively affects the course of classes or concentration of employees. Proper shaping of the acoustics of educational rooms or offices helps to solve these problems. Reducing reverberant noise in classrooms, and especially in sports halls, may indirectly improve the hearing and voice of teachers who are forced to strain their vocal cords in noisy environments, or inhibit further disease processes, or postpone them in time. Reducing reverberant noise will improve their well-being and provide greater comfort at work, and in spaces intended for rest, regeneration, convalescence it will have a beneficial effect on the regeneration of the strengths of students, office workers, patients in hospitals.Rooms that absolutely require silence are libraries, reading rooms, media centers, churches, exhibition halls in museums. Unfortunately, they are often designed in such a way that despite the users’ efforts (to respect the required quietness) it is not possible to achieve the recommended sound levels in them. These examples are meant to illustrate how important it is to provide an appropriate acoustic climate in most of the rooms belonging to public buildings.

Photo: Wojciech Kryński