Airports Acoustic Treatment White Paper
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White Paper Acoustic Treatment Guidelines Airports INNOVATIVE ACOUSTIC SOLUTIONS

Credits Copyright 2020 by Vicoustic No parts of this document might be copied and/or published without the written consent of Vicoustic. This white paper is continually updated with new and amended details. Vicoustic accepts no liability for any eventuality arising from the use of errors contained in this catalog. Vicoustic reserves the right to correct errors or misprints. The pictures shown are merely illustrative and might differ from the actual products.

White Paper Acoustic Treatment Guidelines Airports

4 Public Spaces Acoustic Treatment Guidelines / Airports

Airports Acoustic treatment guidelines How to increase speech intelligibility of airport's PA systems? VMT Line Recommended products VMT — Virtual Material Technology Acoustic treatment results Product Information VMT Collections Glossary

Public Spaces Acoustic Treatment Guidelines / Airports Introduction The anxiety of loosing a flight Loosing a flight is likely to be the main concern that travelers’ have when in an airport, and is likely to be a cause of anxiety and stress to many people. Therefore, in order to minimize this anxiety and make all travelers more confident, airports should provide all relevant flight information in a clear and perceptible way. For this, several new ways to communicate information to travelers are nowadays being used in airports, for e.g. electronic screens, mobile apps, etc. Nevertheless,...

By maximizing the speech intelligibility of an airport's PA system, i.e. by delivering clear and perceptible messages, travelers stress levels are likely to reduce, since they will feel more confident that all the relevant information will be correctly perceived and therefore their experience in the airport should become more relaxed and enjoyable.

Public Spaces Acoustic Treatment Guidelines / Airports Which factors compromise an airport's PA system? In 2017, a research sponsored by The Federal Aviation Administration in the USA1, made a questionnaire about communications transmitted over PA systems. This questionnaire was delivered to members of the airline industry that had a role in the operation of the airports2. In terms of what negatively affects speech intelligibility, most respondents indicated that: "(...) high background noise and room acoustics (...)" are "(...) the most important negative factors on speech intelligibility...

Which airport areas are more relevant for acoustics? According to the same research1, gate areas and concourses are considered the areas where improvement on an airport’s PA system intelligibility should preferentially occur. No wonder that these were the areas that received most votes since these are the “(…) places where passengers are most anxious about announcements related to boarding, delays, upgrades, and so forth”1.

10 Public Spaces Acoustic Treatment Guidelines / Airports How to increase speech intelligibility of airport's PA systems? As seen previously, high background noise and room acoustics are considered the most negative factors on speech intelligibility of an airport's PA system announcements. These two factors are related, i.e. in an uncontrolled room, high background noise levels will occur and then, vice versa, in a controlled room, background noise levels will also be controlled and minimized. So let's start to see why airports are so loud.

Why do airports have high background noise? Typically, airports have very hard reflective surfaces, such as glass, concrete and plasterboard. Therefore, they are normally not acoustically treated leading to acoustic issues. In such environments, sound is strongly reflected many times around a room's surfaces taking a long time before it is finally absorbed. This leads to very reverberant rooms and in such spaces, background noise created by multiple people talking, making noise, etc., will quickly build up, making it very hard for people to understand each other. Consequently, people in...

Public Spaces Acoustic Treatment Guidelines / Airports VMT Line Recommended products 2

Flat Panel VMT For wall installation or T-Bar systems, Flat Panel VMT may just be the ideal solution for an airport. Flat Panel VMT is a sound absorbing panel, extremely efficient in middle and high frequencies, where speech occurs, making it ideal for spaces where great concentrations of people are expected such as in airports. Figure 3 • Flat Panel VMT, Natural Stones Collection, Travertino Classico • Flat Panel VMT, 87a and customized These results are from Flat Panel VMT directly over rigid surface and that in other instalations such as in T-Grid fram its performance is enhanced.

Public Spaces Acoustic Treatment Guidelines / Airports ViCloud VMT Flat and 3D ViClouds VMT are extremely efficient suspended elements that can be used to control the room’s reverberation and any strong sound reflections from the ceiling. ViClouds VMT are a simple and lightweight suspended acoustic solution that is ideal for spaces, where there is a great concentration of people and where background noise, created by a room full of conversations, can quickly build up. As ViClouds VMT are suspended, these acoustic elements have twice the area of absorbing material exposed to noise than other...

Figure 5 • ViCloud Flat VMT, Square, 82a • Flat Panel VMT, Tiles Collection, • Flat Panel VMT, Natural Stones Collection, Grey Stone Pattern Performance 1m from soffit Aeq (m2) 1.6 ViCloud Round ViCloud Square ViCloud Hexagon ViCloud Petal

Public Spaces Acoustic Treatment Guidelines / Airports VMT Virtual Material Technology VMT stands for Virtual Material Technology. These are panels developed exclusively by Vicoustic using an innovative dyeing technology. You can simulate concrete, marble, wood and other materials, achieving a realistic look in any setting with the added benefit of having the acoustics controlled. VMT products are available in a wide range of standard patterns or may be customized with any art-work one may want. Figure 6 • Flat Panel VMT, Natural Stones Collection, Invisible Grey Pattern