More information about the acoustic calculator

The goal of this acoustic calculator is to estimate the appropriate amount of Silentmax® acoustic panels for a given room. A key parameter of acoustic comfort is the reverberation time (echo). The reverberation time is determined by the proportion of acoustically reflective and absorbing materials.

Acoustically reflective materials are hard, such as glass, concrete, wood, plasterboard and the like. They reflect sound waves and subsequently accumulate acoustic energy in the space where there is an excess of them. In modern interiors, offices, classrooms and the like.

Acoustically absorbent materials are soft, such as carpet, curtain, fabric upholstery, duvet. They absorb acoustic energy, which will disappear from the space much earlier due to their influence.

The extremely acoustically absorbent material is Silentmax®, which has other properties such as durability, maintenance-free, non-flammability and the like.

How the calculator works

the difference between the acoustically reflective and absorbing materials in the room determines the reverberation time. After entering the length, width, height of the room, the calculator calculates the total surface area of the room, considering a cuboid-shaped room. From this surface, the scales of the proportion of the room surface and the area of the Silentmax® absorbing material are calculated. Scales are given in percentages of 1% to 8%, where the required active area of Silentmax® panels is indicated for each scale. Furthermore, for each scale, it is indicated how much it will reduce the reverberation of the given room. The data is in % and means by how much % the reverberation time is reduced.

Example

I have a 7x5x2.6 m living room. Using the RT60 mobile app and loud clapping, I measured the reverberation time, which is 1.23 s. There is quite a lot of echo in the room, the sound from the TV reverberates, it’s annoying even at low volumes. I would like to reduce the reverberation time to 0.8s. Calculating 0.8×1.23=0.65. So it works out that to reduce the reverberation time by 35% from 1.23 s I get to 0.8 s.

After inserting these data into the acoustic calculator, the total surface area of the room is 132.4 m², and the scale from 1% to 8% of the area of the Silentmax® acoustic panels. I find the closest scale for reducing reverberation by 35%, which is 36%. So I know that I will need to cover 6% of the room surface with acoustic panels with a total area of 7.94 m², or 8 m².

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