Advent Lutheran Church

The Issue

Advent Lutheran Church of Arlington Virginia enjoys using its Worship Assembly room for a plethora of purposes, due to the improvement in the acoustics. Unfortunately, the room’s reverberation time was at 1.5 seconds. As a result, speech intelligibility was poor, in particular for older members with impaired hearing. We were able to correct this, make it look great, and all within budget.

The Challenge

This shared space had a couple of challenges. There were many hard surfaces on walls, floor, and ceiling, and some AC and traffic noise through the windows. The reverb time coupled with the extraneous sound altogether made for a poor space for acoustics. The budget was not unlimited though, so changing out the air conditioning unit and soundproofing windows was not possible. Our approach was to add absorption to the room, such that the reverb time would be low enough that the background noise would not be an issue anymore.

The Solution

Calculating the reverberation time of the space required the use of an Impulse Response meter, as well as using the room dimensions and empirical testing. This and the Sabine equation helped us to determine the necessary amount of acoustical material. Two-inch thick AlphaSorb® Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panels were the best fit in the calculation. From the results of the calculations, we made a panel layout to follow the length of the walls to have even reveals at the end of runs. The acoustic panels followed the line of the ceiling around the room. White  Sustainable acoustic panels on the ceiling reduce and absorb the floor-to-ceiling echo. All material was put in place by our qualified Acoustical Solutions installation team.

Advent Lutheran Church

Advent Lutheran Church

The Result

Advent Lutheran Church now has a worship assembly space they can use for events, dinners, plays, and other activities for all to enjoy young and old. The reverberation time (RT60) is now down to 0.6 seconds. Members realize the vast improvement and how much more usable the room has become. Our knowledge and expertise have made this space usable, per its original intent. Now the room is perfect for singing instruction, music, community meetings, and even movie nights on occasion.


To learn more about how Acoustical Solutions can solve your noise control problems, use our contact form, call one of our Acoustical Sales Consultants at (800) 782-5742, or visit us on the web at acousticalsolutions.com.