Burrowing Owl Estate Winery Acoustics

A winery in Canada was having noise control problems in its restaurant and Acoustical Solutions was able to help by providing acoustic panels with a decorative touch.

Burrowing Owl Estate Winery sits on a southwest-tilting, sandy plateau along the northernmost tip of the Sonora Desert in Oliver, BC, Canada. The location is ideal for growing world-class grapes and vinting world-class wines. One of the many places to enjoy those wines is Burrowing Owl’s restaurant, in the Sonora Room. Like the rest of the winery, the Sonora Room is world-class, including views of the 125-acre vineyard, expert chefs, and access to superior local produce. Until January 2010, however, the one thing the Sonora Room lacked was a comfortable sound environment. “People were starting to complain about the noise,” explained Emmerick Keller, Burrowing Owl’s plant manager, “it was just like a loud echo, the sound would come right back at you and it was hard for anyone to communicate.” Hard parallel walls and a high ceiling created echoes that reduced speech intelligibility in the restaurant, making conversation and relaxation extremely difficult. “High ceilings are worse than walls when it comes to echoes,” explained Kevin McIver, an Acoustical Solutions Technical Sales Representative, “there are people, tables, and other things to break up sound between walls, but high ceilings create a place for echoes to live free of any obstructions.”

Working with Kevin, management at Burrowing Owl decided to install AlphaSorb® Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panels. These fabric-wrapped acoustic wall panels absorb sound energy and dissipate them into heat energy. This drastically reduces echo and reverberation time, both of which are culprits when it comes to reduced speech intelligibility. The panels are available in many different sizes, shapes, and colors. All of these options are customizable to almost any room. Management also chose to accent the room, and their AlphaSorb®Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panels, with one panel from the Commonwealth Collection. The Commonwealth Collection Acoustic Panels offer a combination of sound control and decorative accents that will enhance both the look and sound quality of any space. This line of decorative wall panels includes thirteen layered acoustic panel designs as well as three corner bass trap designs, available in more than 250 different designer fabric choices.