Sound Treatment
The heavy footsteps upstairs. The rattling subwoofer in your neighbor’s car. The show your spouse insists on watching at the highest volume. We have all been on the receiving end of noise pollution at one time or another and wished there was a way to correct it. The Theater People now give you that option. We have partnered with Kinetics Noise Control, based right here out of Dublin, Ohio, to offer a variety of acoustical treatments for your home or office. Whether it’s adding acoustic panels to your home theater to make the most of your audio, fully isolating your home office for some peace and quiet, or installing sound dampening ceiling tiles in the work place for increased privacy, we can deliver the sound (or lack thereof) that you are craving.
Floor, ceiling, and wall isolation
When it comes to walls, we need to take into account sound that travels directly through the wall, as well as “flanking sound” that goes around the obstacle and seeps in through the sides and seams. To combat this we will install ISOMax isolation elements behind the wall surface to seal those little spaces, plus add a double layer of drywall on the outside for increased density.
As you can imagine, this is quite an extensive process when dealing with existing structures, so there will be drywall demolition and re-installation involved. The ideal time to think about sound treatments, and especially room isolation, is during the planning and construction phases, though we are up to the challenge of sound treating your existing space.
Kinetics offers a range of noise control options to fit your acoustic needs. Ask one of our team members today about your sound treatment options!
Building or renovating a home? Don’t forget to plan ahead for your audio/video, network, security and smart home needs! Head on over to our Wiring page to learn more about how our Pre-Wiring Services can get your abode tech-ready and even save you money!
Fabric Acoustics Panels
Hardside Absorption Panels
HardSide is a traditional, highly versatile sound absorption panel that comes in a variety of thicknesses, fabrics and edge styles, allowing you to design for both your ideal sound and look. These panels are available in sizes up to 4 ft. x 10 ft., and vinyl finishes are an option if you aren’t a fan of more traditional fabric. For unusual locations, custom-designed panels with angled or contoured perimeter cuts can be ordered.
HardSide also offers a High Impact line of reinforced panels for greater abuse resistance, tackability, and increased sound absorption.
Custom Printed Panels by Acoustigraphix
Using a dye sublimation printing process, AcoustiGraphix by Kinetics merges graphic design with stunning acoustics. Show off a unique picture, logo, artwork, quote, or anything really, while controlling both noise and reverberation. These panels come in sizes up to 4′ x 10′, and multiple panels can be combined to create larger images. We can help submit your preferred images to the manufacturer too for a 100% customized sound management solution.
Rear view of Starcoustix StretchTRAK system before it is raised to conceal the acoustic elements on the ceiling.
Starfield Ceiling By STARCOUSTIX
The audio system is rockin’ and the projector is on point, but there’s still something missing from your home theater. Now you can get the starry ceiling you have been dreaming of, with the added benefit of noise control features built right in. The Starcoustix system by Kinetics not only looks amazing, it also conceals sound treatment elements to make your room sound “stellar” too. (Get it?)
Starcoustix technology is available as both a fiber-optic stretchy fabric covering acoustic elements, called the StretchTRAK system, or pre-made panels that can adhere directly to the ceiling or slide into a drop-ceiling grid. The pre-made panels have absorptive properties to help control sound reflections, and the StretchTrak system offers full customization of the sound treatment options based on the specific acoustics of your room, allowing you to really fine tune your audio experience.
This isn’t your everyday, motionless starfield ceiling, either. On top of the sound treatment benefits, the Starcoustix system allows the stars to dim and brighten for dynamic movement, and it even incorporates shooting stars into the mix. The full Starcoustix feature line-up includes:
- Twinkling stars
- Shooting stars
- Constellations
- Night-sky images
- Adjustable frequency and speed of shooting stars
- Adjustable brightness for stars and constellations
- Fully integrates with control system
Ask us about the best solution to bring a little bit of the cosmos into your home.
Want the Starry Ceiling Experience, but not the sound treatment aspect? Kinetics has you covered! They also offer fiber-optic panels with less sound treatment elements to create a ceiling that is out of this world.
Acoustic Wood Elements
Natural wood elements can be utilized for acoustic purposes, and adding a touch of wood to your sound treatments can create an immediate visual and acoustical impact. So, how is wood-finish, a traditionally hard, reflective material, used to absorb and diffuse sound waves? There are actually a variety of techniques that Kinetics employs, each offering their own visual appeal:
Sound absorbers
Sound diffusers
Picado: Micro-perforated holes, small enough to be invisible from a distance, allow sound energy to pass through to acoustical materials beneath.
Sereno: Symmetrical hole patterns permit the passage of sound energy into a concealed absorber. Four standard patterns and hole sizes available with optional customization.
Alto: Small, subtle openings beneath the rolled grooves allow sound energy to pass through and be absorbed by hidden acoustical materials. This surface looks like something you may find on the front of a professional reception desk.
Midtones: Wide, sound-dispersing wells of varying depths provides a wide frequency range of uniform diffusion that is highly sought after in critical listening environments like studios, and even home theaters.
Hightones: Thinner channels with more shallow depths spread the high-frequency sounds around a listening space to add brilliance to music and improve speech intelligibility.
Scatterbox: Not just visually appealing, but effective too. Control harsh noise reflections by randomly dispersing the sound energy throughout the listening space. Improve the sound clarity for a more lifelike listening experience.
The available types of woods range anywhere from maple and cherry, to walnut and mahogany, with oak and birch, and even a few bonus woods thrown in depending on the product and style. Wooden acoustic elements are an ideal choice for commercial applications that demand professional aesthetics, although they also inspire a feeling of refinement and class when blended into a residential A/V system.
Thick rugs and upholstered furniture can only do so much for your room acoustics. When you are ready to really bring your audio alive, we will be there to help.
Noise control ceiling tiles
In drop-ceiling situations where the walls don’t reach the top of the ceiling structure, noises penetrate standard ceiling tiles and emerge into neighboring spaces quite easily. Kinetic’s noise control ceiling tiles greatly improve “speech privacy” and help decrease the sounds heard from the next room over. Ceiling tiles have a CAC rating, or ceiling attenuation class rating, that defines how well the tile prevents airborne sound from being transmitted into adjacent spaces. Standard ceiling tiles have a CAC rating of about 30-35, where Kinetic’s noise control tiles have a CAC rating of 49 and 51. These tiles are ideal for commercial settings and audio-enabled spaces with a drop-ceiling.
and just for fun...
Anechoic Chambers: The Quietest Place on Earth
“Inside the room, it’s silent—so silent that the background noise is measured in negative decibels, meaning it’s below the threshold of human hearing. In 2004, the room clocked in at -9.4 A-weighted decibels, or dBA (the weighting allows for a closer representation of actual human hearing), and after improvements to the space, eight years later it had a reading of -13 dBA. But it was temporarily unseated as the quietest place on Earth when, in 2015, a chamber in Redmond, Washington, set a new record at -20.35 dBA. Orfield Laboratories took the record back in November 2021 with a measurement of -24.9 dBA. With no audible background noise to cover it up, visitors report hearing the sound of blood pumping in their heads or moving through their veins, according to Caity Weaver of the New York Times Magazine. Or, as Casey Darnell writes for the Star Tribune, you can even hear the sound of your eyelids shutting upon blinking.
The chamber is called “anechoic” because it’s designed to stop sound waves from reflecting off the walls, silencing any echoes of noise. It’s a box with steel walls, suspended by springs inside a larger box with steel walls, tucked inside the full laboratory that has concrete walls a foot thick. Inside the chamber, visitors are surrounded by rigid brown fiberglass wedges that absorb sound on all sides—even the floor, so they stand on a suspended mesh.” — Smithsonian Magazine
