An activity room of a under-6-child-care facility (crèche, day nursery, daycare, kindergarten) is a space in which, especially for the medium and high frequencies (therefore, in particular: in the 500-2000 Hz frequency interval), in the absence of means aiming at acoustic comfort of occupants:
- the noise level can be very high, because of the activities that take place
- for children noise can become troublesome with respect to the community life learning, the discovery of sounds associated with their discovery / practice of speech, of music or of sounds in general, their games, their sound expressions of all types, and cause disorders of various natures e.g. agitation, nervousness, tendency to sound increase (not limitative list)
- for the staff, noise can become troublesome for what constitutes their work and cause disorders of various kinds e.g. tiredness, feeling of having to make an effort to be heard (and understood), difficulties to maintain as available as desirable (not limitative list).
Such symptoms of a lack of acoustic comfort can often be directly related to an excessive reverberation of the space, the results of measurements made then indicating that the internal acoustic of the considered space is perfectible.
An improvement of the observed situation can then be obtained in particular by the implementation of acoustic absorbent coatings covering (at least: partially) the sides currently acoustically reflective and thus contributing (otherwise) to the unwanted when in excess reverberation phenomenon. A particular attention must be paid when choosing such coatings to their sound absorption coefficient which shall be high enough, especially in frequency bands ranging between center frequency 500 Hz and 2000 Hz.
ITS will contribute to the improvement of the acoustic comfort of a nursery around Lyon (France, Auvergne-Rhône Alpes region).
This is indeed a beautiful and noble task in terms of sound insulation in buildings !
Among the products available on the market (some have an acoustic absorption coefficient of the order of 0.90 or more in the frequency bands of center frequency comprised between 500 Hz and 2000 Hz), the other required properties given the use of the premise (daycare/nursery), the conditions of supply of such products and their adequation with respect to possible on-site installation conditions will in particular be taken into account for the selection of absorbent coatings that will also participate in the decoration of the space.