Christ Church Of Arlington

Fellowship is an extremely important concept and practice in churches around the world. Essentially, fellowship is members of a congregation gathering: communicating, socializing, and discussing everything from church business, faith, and family matters to the big Sunday night game. To make this experience as satisfying as possible for its members and visitors, Christ Church of Arlington contacted Acoustical Solutions. “The problem was too much noise when the room was occupied – which is often!” says Humphrey Mar, a deacon and member of the church’s building committee. “People had to raise their voices just to talk to the person right in front of them. And that only exacerbated the problem.” Christ Church of Arlington was experiencing high levels of reverberation due to hard, flat, reflective surfaces in its fellowship hall. This resulted in low speech intelligibility, which made some members rethink participation. “It was so bad that some of our elderly members simply gave up on ‘fellowship time’ because they couldn’t socialize,” Humphrey explains.

To treat the space, Whisperwave® Ceiling Clouds were hung from the ceiling. The panels were easy to mount and installed in a way that was not only effective, but also aesthetically-pleasing. “The installation wasn’t hard for us amateur volunteers. And at least the way we installed it, it was extremely forgiving in terms of not having to line up everything,” Humphrey says. Whisperwave® Ceiling Clouds are curved acoustic products that absorb sound energy. Whisperwave® Ceiling Clouds are a very popular stylized alternative to more traditional acoustical panels, which are often flat. In addition to being extremely effective at absorbing sound (NRC Rating: .85 – .95), the entire Whisperwave® line is made from Class 1 Fire Rated acoustic foam.

After the project’s completion, Christ Church of Arlington had a space that both sounded and looked better. “The net effect has been a dramatic improvement, especially directly beneath the clouds,” Humphrey says. It looks and sounds like folks just might be sticking around a little longer for ‘fellowship time’ now that they can understand each other.