Leisure Facilities

Aran Acoustics can provide design advice on a range of Leisure facilities including Gyms, Sports Halls and Swimming Pools.

More and more leisure operations are shared with residential developments. Gyms can form part of a larger complex such as a hotel or share adjoining walls or floors with other retail spaces. Due to the nature of gyms normal activities can cause complaints from adjoining spaces such as the impact of weights been dropped causing structure-borne sound transmission. Treadmills can also be a cause of structural noise due to the high impact and quantity of machines running at any one time. Therefore careful consideration should be given to impact isolation at the design stage. Additionally sound insulation is an important criteria to consider at the design stage due to high internal noise levels and background music used in some classes.
Due to their large volume, rectangular shape with hard surface finishes; Sports Halls and Swimming Pools tend to be particularly reverberant spaces. This leads to high occupied noise levels due to reverberant sound buildup. parallel walls with a hard reflective finish also creates flutter echos which leads to poor speech intelligibility. Coaches and Instructors have to raise their voice to be heard over the background noise and students will have difficulty hearing in such spaces.
The long reverberation times in sports halls can be reduced by the introduction of acoustically absorbent material which would improve listening, hearing, understanding and speaking conditions in these spaces. Calculation of the quantity of absorption is required however using the simplified Sabines Equation tends to underestimate the quantity of absorption needed.The most effective method is to produce a computer model of the space which allows the designer to find the most effective locations to place acoustic treatment.
Aran Acoustics can carry out computer modelling of large reverberant spaces to advise the design team on the quantity and most effective location for absorption treatment. Please contact us for further information.
Noise levels from outdoor sporting activity can impact on nearby noise sensitive properties. Aran Acoustics can carry out noise impact assessments for various outdoor events and activities. These include:

  • Skate Parks
  • Game Courts
  • Sports Fields

 

To carry out a noise impact assessment a noise survey is required to establish the existing noise levels in the area and at nearby noise sensitive locations. The proposed noise source(s) is then compared to the existing noise levels to help determine the level of impact. Depending on the noise source in question there are a considerable body of legislation and standards that provide guidance on the level of impact.