At Toronto’s Eaton Centre, Canadian telecommunications company, Telus Communications, opened a new ‘connected experience’ store. This new concept features a curated collection of more than 1,000 cutting edge (and sometimes noisy) technology products intended to enhance the consumer’s digital life. In a store of otherwise hard surfaces open to a bustling shopping mall, sound control is of utmost importance.
When a sound wave is produced, it bounces off the reflective surfaces it comes in contact with. The amount of time it takes (in seconds) for that sound to dissipate is termed “reverberation time” (RT) and lengthy RTs allow sounds to build up and conflict with one another. Initial reverberation time calculations for the retail store were literally off the charts. Using FilzFelt’s proprietary Reverberation Time (RT) Calculator, a recommended quantity of Akustika 25 Baffles was calculated to achieve the optimal reverberation time of 0.8–1.2 for a retail space.
Since the client required that any sound attenuation blend seamlessly into the aesthetic of the space, DesignStead implements color and some creative configurations to create dynamic overhead patterning with the needed sound absorption. The baffles are customized based on Telus’s branding and one color can be experienced from one direction and another from the opposite direction.
