Restaurant Acoustics

Have you ever been inside of a crowded restaurantchairs and booth seating because fabrics absorb the
sitting at a table with your wife or girlfriend only to findsound. The same goes for bar stools and lounge
out that you could not hear a word she was sayingchairs and couches. Use fabric covered furnishings
because the acoustics in the restaurant were sowhenever possible. Here’s a handy trick for tuning
poor? Most restaurants employ hard surface areasup the acoustics in a restaurant. There is a product on
throughout in order to easily keep the establishmentthe market now called Echoless Roll material. This is a
clean and healthy. The problem with all the clean hardbonded acoustical cotton roll material that has a black
surfaces is that they reflect the sound. In other words,neutral fabric facing on one side. Not a very appealing
the sound bounces around the room making it difficultlook for an up scale restaurant, but here’s the trick.
he understand what the person at your own table is Take your tables and chairs and glue this Echoless
saying, but instead clearly hearing the lady 5 tablesroll material to the bottoms of both the chairs and
away from you.tables where none of the patrons will be able to see
Restaurant acoustics are generally horrible. Here youthis material. The Echoless roll can also be glued to the
are taking the lady you love out for your anniversaryunderside of the bar and bar stools or to the underside
and paying at least $50 per plate and you can’tof any of the furnishings in the establishment where
even carry on a conversation with her. Manynoise reflection is an issue. This material strategically
restaurants are losing business because they don’tplaced can actually reduce the amount of reflective
know the first thing about acoustics. There are manynoise by at least 50% to 65%. The more of it you are
thing that restaurant owners and managers can do toable to use in the restaurant, the better your sound
make the room much more pleasant for their patrons.absorption will be. You can dramatically lower reverb
These dining areas need to be acoustically treated ortimes and increase speech intelligibility to the point
absorbent materials are needed to absorb thewhere a normal conversation can take place in a very
reflective noise in the restaurant. When furnishing acrowded eatery.
new restaurant, it is always best to add fabric covered