First Baptist Church of Ironton

For several months, Pastor Corey Williams in speaking with his congregation after services, started receiving some feedback. They expressed they had a hard time hearing and understanding all of the sermon. Corey was certainly concerned about the issue. Based on the room information provided to us, I explained how the reflective surfaces of the space were passing reverberation and echo throughout the room. The concrete walls, windows, floors, and high wood ceilings were all contributing factors to the undesirable sound. This was not an optimal situation for speech intelligibility, nor the live music being played during the service.

When I spoke with Corey, he shared his concerns with me. Once I saw pictures of the space, I knew right away what would be necessary to address the sound reflections. After a few conversations, we were able to target specific areas to treat with sound absorbing panels, while staying within their budget. The decision was to use slender 24″ wide panels varying from 4′ to 8′ to meet the aesthetics of their space. We aimed to lower the reverberation time to 2 seconds. This would increase speech intelligibility while leaving enough life in the room. It would also allow for a little natural reverberation for the live performances during the service.

Materials

AlphaSorb® Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panels

• Thickness: 1″
• Edges: Square Chemically Hardened
• Fabric: Guilford of Maine FR701
• Color: 144 Eggshell
• Mounting: Impaling Clips and Adhesive; (10) 2′ x 4,' (10) 2′ x 8′

The Eggshell fabric nicely complemented the current color of the sanctuary creating a warm comfortable look, while the panel placement allowed us to lower their reverberation time considerably. This improved the speech intelligibility tremendously, as well as improved the overall sound within the space during the musical numbers. Once installed, Corey and his committee was satisfied with the outcome.