Reducing Echo in a Gym

Charlie Mann, Director of Operations at Alvord ISD in Texas, reached out to NetWell Noise Control looking for help with reducing the reverberation time in their school’s large gymnasium. Gyms are notorious for being echo chambers due to their tall ceiling heights and hard reflective surfaces. The NetWell team gathered information about their gym (size & surface finishes) which was used to calculate the reverb time (RT60) of the gym. The longer the reverb time, the more “echo” there is in the room, as it takes longer for sound energy to dissipate. This results in a loss of speech intelligibility due to original sound waves and reflected sound waves interfering with one another. The desired RT60 of a space varies based on the type of room and how it’s being used. Most gyms will want to target an RT60 between 1.8-2.2 seconds.

For Alvord ISD, our Room Analysis targeted the installation of 576 VET Baffles. This video illustrates the acoustics in the gym before & after NetWell’s VET Baffles were installed.

Gym Size: 99′ wide x 100′ long x 28′ high

RT60 Before: 4.2-4.5 seconds

RT60 After: Under 2 seconds

Sean