Gaming Room Acoustic Treatment: Ultimate Guide

I’ll admit it, gaming is huge and getting bigger everyday. The world of video games is incredible, especially when compared to where it started not that long ago.

Everyone may remember the simple games like Pong and Ms. Pac-Man and how fun they were, and then how the first super popular side-scroller games, like Super Mario World, took it to a whole other level. Instead of playing a game like Pong, which was essentially a tennis match, games now are immersive, following a character on a journey.

In the time from Super Mario World to now, the immersiveness of video games has reached profound levels. In addition to extremely engaging video games that help the gamer feel like being the character in a Hollywood movie, the competitive games have reached such heights that Esports – professional video gaming – has become a career option! Competitive, team-based video games have vaulted the hobby into more than just something fun to do at home alone, now it’s something to do actively with others, and the more competitive the game, the more fun it is to be with each other when playing.

Welcome to the world of gaming lounges! In this article, we will introduce the concept of gaming lounges and focus on the most critical aspect after a live internet connection and computers: proper acoustic treatment to maximize the experience.

When looking to construct a gaming lounge, there are a handful of absolutely critical components:

Although video games have always been available on computers, the great expansion of gaming came through gaming consoles. Brands such as Atari, Nintendo, Sega and eventually Sony and Microsoft created amazing consoles that needed only to be plugged into a tv to work. They are still popular, but with the massive increase in online gaming and the prices of extremely powerful computers began to become reasonable, computer gaming now reigns supreme.

To even call your business a gaming lounge will require a bank of computers and/or gaming consoles connected to screens and ultimately, the internet.

While many gamers may be content to play offline, the vast majority of the most popular games being played today are done online. No gaming lounge can succeed without an extremely high-bandwidth, low-latency internet connection that can handle many users at the same time.

As I mentioned, gaming nowadays is an immersive experience. Have you ever watched a truly immersive film, something like The Lord of the Rings, standing in your living room? I haven’t! I want a big couch I can cozy up on for the exciting ride I’m about to take. Video games are no different! In fact, many companies have risen in the past decade that produce chairs specifically meant for gaming. Stocking your gaming lounge with gaming chairs is a great addition, but really anything comfortable will work.

Proper acoustics is the unsung hero of gaming lounges. Remember, we are looking to create an immersive atmosphere here, and dialing in your acoustics is critical to your mission.

You don’t want to play a video game and hear street sounds out of a nearby window, or kitchen sounds from a neighboring room full of people having a good time. You also don’t need to hear reverberations and echoes from all kinds of games being played simultaneously! We must properly design the gaming lounge to make an acoustic and comfortable space where immersive gaming environments can unfold.

When discussing acoustical treatment of any space with customers, I like to start with the basics so they fully understand the components and products to achieve their vision. The main thing to understand with improving acoustics in a space is the difference between soundproofing and sound control.

Often mixed up, these are two very different aspects of acoustics. Soundproofing means blocking sound, whether from inside or out. For a gaming lounge, perhaps the lounge is one business of many in a strip mall. You don’t want the sounds from the neighboring businesses to come through the walls and disrupt the gaming experience. You also don’t want the gaming experience leaking out through the walls,annoying your neighbors! This is where soundproofing is critical – blocking sounds from outside coming in and interfering with the experience.

Sound control is for making the sound within your gaming lounge better. By better, I mean cleaning up reverberation and echoes to make the sound cleaner and better heard. Considering that the best and most popular video games in the world have fantastic soundtracks and sounds, you want them to be heard as they were meant to be heard, not all garbled together and messy. This is where sound control comes into play.

In essence, soundproofing creates your foundation and sound control makes the sounds emitted in your space sound as perfectly as they can be, by providing the optimal atmosphere for a fully-immersive gaming experience.

As I mentioned, soundproofing is the foundation, so that’s where we’ll begin:

To create our base from which to craft the best acoustics, we start with soundproofing. This will include treating the ceiling, walls, doors, windows, and floors.

Properly treating walls and drywalled ceilings may take an extra bit of effort, but it is fully worth the results to create the right acoustic experience for your gaming room. I recommend the combination of our AudioSeal® Mass Loaded Vinyl (MLV) Soundproofing Barrier, Resilient Sound Isolation Clips (RSIC-1), and Green Glue Noiseproofing Compound. After removing drywall, apply the three products, install new drywall, and your ceilings and walls are soundproofed, and ready for sound control materials to perfect the sound!

Now that we’ve got the hard part out of the way and laid the foundation for great acoustics with a properly soundproofed room, it’s time to control the sound so your gamers get the full experience they’re looking for.

Gaming continues to be massively popular and there’s no reason to think that it won’t continue, especially as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality devices improve. It suggests that gaming lounges aren’t a historical oddity, but a great business idea with room to run. To get the most out of it, treating your gaming room acoustically is just as important as having good computers, gaming consoles, screens, and internet connection.

If you’d like help planning the acoustic treatment of your unique space, please give me a call today!