Nutrien

The Issue

Nutrien needed some sound advice to address an unbearable sound problem in their large employee conferencing and event center. The Potash Corporation and Agrium Corporation merged forming Nutrien, a leader in Global Agriculture. As part of this merger, they would be utilizing their new employee center for meetings, conferences, and other gatherings. They contacted Acoustical Solutions for advice on resolving their reverberation and echo problems.

The Challenge

Nutrien is the world’s largest potash producer and the second and third largest producer of nitrogen and phosphate. Their employee center is a new facility, replacing the original that was lost due to flooding from the nearby Pamlico River. The employee center is used frequently for meetings, training, and large employee gatherings. They have two rooms, the Pamlico Sound Room and the Pamlico River Room, which are both open spaces. When full of people, the noise level was unbearable for the employees. The rooms were so loud it was difficult to hold a conversation let alone a proper meeting.

The Solution

To address the sound issues, our installation team mounted 1″ Thick AlphaSorb^® Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panels in The Pamlico Sound Room. These work well at reducing sound reflections from parallel walls and are available in colors and sizes to fit any space. In the Pamlico River Room, our AcoustiWall Fabric Stretch System was utilized to provide a horizontal run of panels on the longer walls. With this high-end acoustical panel system, we created one seamless panel section, improving speech intelligibility and reducing the obnoxious echo in the space. The panels are now on the walls in both spaces, creating a comfortable environment for all their future meetings and employee gatherings.

Nutrien Employee Conferencing and Event Center

The Result

The Employee Center has great acoustics thanks to our AlphaSorb^® Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panels and our AcoustiWall Fabric Stretch System. The panels improved the reverberation and helped to reduce the overall noise level in the space. They also improve speech clarity, allowing the employees to communicate more effectively. The employees now enjoy their employee center, as well as their conversations. The panels gave both spaces a great look that met the acoustic goals for this project.