How noise affects the experience in a restaurant

Noise in restaurants is a topic that has been treated a lot in recent times, not only by specialists, but by articles in important magazines, by health research, by annoyed reviews from customers who cannot feel themselves sitting around a table, to complaints from staff who struggles to be heard and concludes the working day with annoying headaches or a general malaise.

Reverberation in restaurants normally depends on the surfaces of which the room is made up. Often the floors, ceiling and walls are reflective and this causes sound to bounce from one place to another. Finally, the furniture often does not help as it is also made of reflective material. Background music is often added to an already delicate situation which, in an environment with reverberant acoustics, adds further difficulty and background noise. The conclusion of this set of reflective elements is a large reverb that brings an annoying background noise. In order to make themselves heard and be able to speak, the clientele will raise the volume of their voices, creating a vicious circle far removed from the acoustic comfort which is so important for the well-being of our mind and body.

Loud reviews

In recent years there have been more and more reviews that include the words “noise”, “annoyance”, “noise”, reverberation”, etc … this happens because people begin to be sensitive not only towards the well-being of their sight and taste when they go to the restaurant, but also to hearing health. Some customers are now making easy use of decibel meters thanks to easy-to-use applications already installed on their smartphones. And this is how even sound becomes the protagonist together with the food and service that is offered.

How to offer real Acoustic Comfort and avoid problems

There are two main approaches to eliminating the reverberation problem. First of all, if the structure is still to be built, sound-absorbing construction materials can be used such as micro-perforated false ceilings or non-reflecting flooring or even furnishing elements that trap sound inside them such as thick tablecloths, velvet curtains or upholstered chairs . If, on the other hand, the restaurant is already built and furnished, there are many practical and aesthetic solutions for interacting with the surrounding environment to improve acoustic comfort.

First of all, it will be important to analyze the environment from an acoustic point of view to understand its current reverberation and the quantity and type of material necessary to arrive at the optimal time. An acoustic program will then be used with measurements using class A sound level meters to extrapolate the data useful for the analysis. These calculations, together with the analysis of the space and the furnishing elements present, make it possible to determine the right products to use. A targeted acoustic correction intervention has the primary objective of making speech comprehension fluid and easy and of obtaining a speech intelligibility index favorable to listening.

The competence of the Acoustic Technician is essential to obtain a decisive result, since there is no single solution valid for all cases, but each solution is determined to measure for each environment. It is important to identify the right amount of sound-absorbing material to insert, since too much material could cause damage, making the environment too “intimate” and unpleasant for those who stay there. The main areas to work on are in the literature the ceiling and the floor, but it will always be the Acoustic Technician who will identify the best solution for each individual case. There are many companies that today try to deal with acoustics and it is therefore of fundamental importance to rely on a company that guarantees a final result and that does it in writing in order to give the customer a project on which he can rely. It is essential that the current values, the calculation of the optimal time for the environment and the result that will be achieved with the insertion of the proposed sound-absorbing material are present on the project.