Gerriets: Specialists in acoustic furniture

Space & Sound! Solutions for unwanted noise level in large rooms

Big rooms, big problems - whether it's an open-plan office or a theatre wherever there are many people, there is always a certain "background noise". Ringing telephones, discussions between colleagues, even the tapping of keyboards can impair concentration.

Improving room acoustics and making the room quieter are therefore demands often made of planning offices and furnishing professionals - especially when rooms are poorly soundproofed, have high ceilings and concrete walls or have to achieve a special room sound.

Are you planning offices or a theatre and cultural space? Would you like to retrofit acoustically poor rooms? Advice on functional acoustic products from Gerriets and on installing noise protection curtains can be found in the smow stores.

Optimizing interior acoustics inside: Room-in-room concepts

Parallel to solutions for culture and theatre venues, Gerriets also specializes in meeting customers' demands in the office sector.

Whether in theatres and cultural institutions or in open-plan offices, most large rooms have two acoustic problems that the anti-noise walls and curtains presented here counteract: via an appropriate acoustic design the subjective room impression can be improved, the noise level reduced and speech intelligibility can be increased.

Large rooms often have to be "acoustically re-optimized", for example if the room was built for a different purpose to that which it currently serves - an industrial hall, for example, transferred to an open-plan office or lecture room. Reverberation and noise in large, and very high, halls is reduced so that conversations or lectures are more understandable and employees can work without undue hindrance.

From problem to solution: find the correct acoustic furnishings with Gerriets

Noise protection walls are familiar from motorways where they serve to keep the noise level tolerable for the surrounding residential buildings. Similar solutions are available from Gerriets for indoor use, and can be realised with individual style. Together with Gerriets we approach some common domestic and work space noise problems and their specific - acoustically improving or sound-absorbing - solution:

Have you moved into an office and afterwards realize that high ceilings and smooth concrete walls lead to poor acoustics and speech intelligibility or long reverberation times?

► Sound-absorbing curtains made from special fibres and yarns improve room acoustics, either as window or wall curtains

Your lecture room has windows and the daylight blinds the view of the monitors, but you do not want the room to be darkened?

► A transparent acoustic curtain that lets daylight through is suitable here

Do you have an unused empty space in the middle of the office? Do you want to create small meeting or quiet zones there, pop-up-like?

► 5 to 7-layer soundproof curtains are suitable here: The spoken word and privacy remain in the pop-up room

Today 1, tomorrow 2: Large rooms need to be regularly divided into smaller rooms - quickly, at the push of a button and without conversion work and walls? Would you like to switch quickly between open-plan and individual offices?

► If you only need a complete privacy screen without a silencer function, but want to set it up quickly, install a single-layer motorized curtain as a room divider

Do you have a gallery, exhibition space or foyer with large areas of sound-reflecting glass and want to block out street noise from outside and also the sound of footsteps and conversations inside?

► The sound curtain ELEGANCE or translucent acoustic curtains are suitable here

You offer workshops and, when necessary, small groups are created that need their own space at the push of a button, but you don't want to set up cumbersome partitions?

► Fixed but flexibly usable rail systems with switches and crossings are suitable for quickly opening a noise protection curtain

Your meeting room has glass partitions, but once the meeting software speakers are turned on, does everyone outside hear you in?

► A translucent acoustic curtain in front of the glass walls ensures better acoustics inside and privacy during conversations. Artificial light sources can thus be avoided

In larger, well-stocked restaurants, conversations are sometimes difficult to hold and understand.

► Ceiling membranes and sails made of Trevira CS fabric are suitable here, as they absorb the sound in larger event locations or tents

For discreet meetings: An acoustically separated yet light-flooded meeting island, here at the designer furniture manufacturer Vitra in Weil am Rhein. Foto: Eduardo Perez

Soundproofing Solutions

Shielding and absorption are two main criteria soundproof furniture, curtains or special (partition) walls meet, and that are necessary to solve noise problems in public spaces or offices.

SOUND CURTAIN OFFICE (SHIELD)

ACOUSTIC CURTAINS ABSORBER (ABSORPTION)

The Gerriets acoustic fabric curtains ABSORBER LIGHT and ABSORBER CS are respectively transparent (light) or opaque (CS), and thus responsive to differing requirements:

Advice and planning on Gerriets acoustic furniture in the smow stores

Are you looking for a product before you move into a new room or do you want to upgrade your rooms afterwards? simply contact one of the following smow stores and make an appointment:

Which noise protection solution do I need?

As the acoustic requirements vary amongst locations, for example, education spaces, music & culture venues, trade fair halls, call centers or office building foyers all have different demands. Our overview explains in which sectors which Gerriets acoustic products have solved which room acoustic problems::