Sound know-how helps clarify the message

Wootton New Life Church is a growing and lively Methodist church at the heart of the village of Wootton in Bedfordshire.

For many years the traditional rectangular church building had a suspended ceiling, which had begun to look tired; so the church decided to open up the whole space and redecorate.

Unfortunately, that would mean removing the main source of sound absorption in the building and lead to an increase in reverberation time – making speech intelligibility poor and their modern worship style fatiguing.

Specialist sound and acoustics company APi Communications were contacted to help resolve the problem. APi calculated that, in order to reduce the reverberation time from the 2.2 seconds that was current to around 1.2 seconds – halfway between ideal speech and ideal amplified music recommendations – the church required around 60m2 of additional absorption.

The solution was to use 25mm-thick acoustic panels fixed to the walls. They are available in many colours, sizes and shapes to fit in with the decor of the church. Most of the panels were placed along the rear wall and between the windows on the front wall, with the remainder above the entrance door and on the wall with the cross.

Dave Goodson of Wootton New Life Church said of the result: “It took us a few weeks to get used to, as we were so used to the sound bouncing back to us; but it has made a significant impact.

“The service from APi Communications throughout was efficient and positive; the product is just right for what we needed. The team that carried out the installation were clean, tidy and efficient and actually completed the job ahead of schedule.”

For further information visit www.apicommunications.co.uk