Municipal Music School of Pinto

The Municipal Music School of Pinto in Madrid was in need of improving the acoustics of its facilities in order to further motivate its students and offer teachers a healthier work environment.

More specifically, a multipurpose room as well as the entrance hall were both treated with Ecophon “Class A” absorbing acoustic solutions (Ecophon Akusto^TM Wall and Ecophon Gedina^TM E). This greatly reduced the reverberation time and improved the speech clarity, making it a more enjoyable experience for students, parents and teachers.

The school coordinator, Maribel Lliteras, was surprised after the intervention with the positive change in behaviour of the students once the intervention was carried out.

“Right now, explanations prior to activities can be given in the entrance hall without teachers having to stain their voice as the noise level does not increase”.

The Entrance hall after the acoustic refurbishment intervention (Blue Akusto^TM Wall and Gedina^TM E solutions were installed).

The Multipurpose room after the acoustic refurbishment (again Blue Akusto^TM Wall and Gedina^TM E solutions were installed).

Plan of the spaces treated as well as measurement positions, P: microphone positions, D: source positions.

Acoustic measurements

The multipurpose room has a volume of approximately 300 m³ whereas the entrance hall has 480 m^3. Whereas the entrance hall is sparsely furnished, the multipurpose room is fully equipped with chairs, tables, shelves, etc. Regarding the linings, both spaces have the walls made of plasterboard, the flooring is ceramic tiles and the ceiling is a reflecting/non-absorbing ceiling.

The results of the reverberation time measurements carried out before and after the acoustic intervention, averaged through the different measurement and source positions, can be seen in the tables below.

Reverberation time in the entrance hall, before (blue) and after (red) the acoustic refurbishment.

Reverberation time in the multipurpose room, before (blue) and after (red) the acoustic refurbishment.

Summary of average values of the reverberation time in both spaces.

	Entrance hall		Multipurpose room
	Before	After	Before	After
Tmid [s]*	2,27	1,17	1,17	0,6
T [s]**	1,98	1,05	1,13	0,72

^{*Avg 500, 1000 and 2000 Hz, **Avg 125-4000 Hz}

The sound levels were significantly reduced in both spaces. In order to gain further knowledge about how much the of both rooms, sound level measurements were made at different positions in both spaces to gain a more accurate understanding around how the sound levels are now controlled in these spaces. The sound pressure level reduction in the entrance hall is reduced by around 4dB and around 6dB in the multipurpose room.

Experience the difference before and after the acoustic refurbishment:

Read more at our Acoustic Bulletin website.