Saint Peter's Catholic Church Fellowship Hall Acoustics

Saint Peter’s Catholic Church uses its fellowship hall for a wide range of activities, group meetings, and community events. The goal of the church was to increase speech intelligibility in their fellowship hall, which had a high cathedral ceiling. The church had previously involved a general-purpose contractor. The contractor had expressed doubts about his ability to correct the issue. Acoustical Solutions was able to apply its knowledge and expertise to the problem and outline an appropriate solution.

Saint Peter’s Catholic Church wanted a design that called for panels to be mounted high on the walls and no products applied to the lower 10′ portion of the walls. The initial design would lower the reverberation time of the room. But, there would be potential flutter echo issues in certain untreated areas. To solve the echo problem, a linear band of panels was recommended for the side walls. Custom two-inch-thick AlphaSorb® Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panels were manufactured and installed to specification. The treatment met both the design and acoustic requirements of the room. Acoustical Solutions was able to measure the ceiling angle very accurately from the floor and translate that shape into panels with only a 3″ reveal between the ceiling and the panels. Additionally, door seals were applied to a set of double doors to prevent any sound from leaving the fellowship hall. The design worked out perfectly and provided an accurate and clean solution, solving the church’s acoustical challenges.

Post treatment, speech intelligibility in the fellowship hall has vastly improved, and the pastor and the parish members are completely satisfied with the results. The church is even considering adding more AlphaSorb® Acoustic Panels to fine-tune the room’s acoustics even further.