What is an Acoustician? Gunter & Co meets Rossco.
When we work with our clients, we design their homes intrinsically around how they use their space. Considering the role of sound is becoming an increasingly important conversation - from soundproofing a musicians home studio to controlling reverberations in a beautiful Georgian town hall. When we met acoustician, Ross Sharples of Rossco Ltd, we learnt a huge amount about how sound works within the home and how by working together, we can elevate the spaces we design that little bit more. We asked Ross to share with us a bit more about what an acoustician is and how he got started.
When and how was Rossco founded?
Rossco was founded in November 1997.
Following several years as a musician, I decided to embark on a mission to understand sound in every way I could. I used my contact, party planner extraordinaire (and ex-business partner), William Bartholomew to get a foothold in the private events industry. I have never advertised and I have never looked back. Word of mouth took me deep into this incredible industry of unique events, which as I have said, led to the birth of ‘acoustics’ in 2010.
We now have two arms to the business:
AV & Sound Design - the design, supply and operation of sound and video systems for high profile private and corporate events. These include some the most extravagant private parties in amazing places across UK and abroad. Often with A-List entertainment. These are the kind of parties that you don’t even read about because they are not about publicity or show-biz, but enjoyment.
Acoustics - the design and supply of high-quality acoustic treatment solutions for hospitality, high end residential public, and commercial spaces. For example, retrofitting a celebrity’s ultra-modern house so that he can make as much noise as he likes in the studio without disturbing his wife and new-born baby.
What are acoustics and why do they matter?
Acoustics is the understanding of what sound does once it has been created; does it bounce around, reflect, escape or get absorbed?
The acoustics of a space directly affect our wellbeing and comfort. A simple example is in a bedroom; our hearing never switches off so if it is reverberant or noisy, a continuous stress response is caused by the release of cortisol into our brains. This lessens the quality of sleep and leaves us tired, less tolerant, less able to concentrate and with potentially serious mental health issues.
That same hormone is released in a noisy restaurant or kitchen dining room preparing you for ‘fight or flight’, not your main course!
‘Bad acoustics’ are experienced when the sound reflections in a room interfere with what your brain expects to hear; either causing distortion, decreasing vocal intelligibility, or are too dead, it works both ways.
Our brains constantly compensate for poor acoustics to make life more understandable, but this comes at the cost of mental fatigue. In the short term this leads to tiredness, irritability, loss of appetite, and loss of cognition – none of which pertain to comfortable living or functional spaces.
In the long term this can lead to hearing loss, serious mental health issues, and isolation for people with deteriorating hearing. Low frequency vibration can even cause nausea and physical illness.
Sound and acoustics underwrite all of our other senses, constantly reassuring us that everything is ok, or alerting us when it isn’t. We keep hearing even when we are asleep, it never switches off, yet it is ignored as the poor relation to ‘sight’.
It’s about creating a pleasant place to be, poor acoustics can really affect your enjoyment of a space.
How would you describe your craft and what do you bring to an interior design project?
If solving acoustic problems was as simple as finding places to put some fluffy panels from a DIY shop, then I would not be in business.
Where and how an absorber is mounted will affect its performance. To perform a ‘proper’ correction of the sound properties it takes expert input, not a DIY approach, and that is what Rossco offer.
Good design is a creative and technical response to a client`s needs. I will ensure that it performs well acoustically but understand that it needs to look good.
We talk your language and integrate ours.
At what stage in an interior design project should acoustics be considered? How do you get involved?
Ideally acoustics would be taught at ‘interior design school’ to a meaningful level and be considered as part of the design process from the start, but they’re not. Equally most of our work is rectifying things that could have been considered at a much earlier stage but if people actually did this then I’d be out of business!
Rossco tend to get involved in a project once a problem has developed.
We analyse the space to quantify the problem. This can either be predicted using computer modelling from plan or measured on site in real time. We then look at the functionality of the room to determine what the acoustics should be like and propose solutions to achieve this. We can then demonstrate to a client ‘where they are’, ‘where they should be’ and ‘where they could be’ at different price points. This graphic representation is an easy thing to understand, and triggers lots of questions and involvement from interested parties. Parameters can be changed to experiment with different finishes, fittings, furniture etc.
How do you decide what elements are missing from an interior to create better acoustics?
Bad room acoustics often come down to reverberation, and early reflections of sound energy. These phenomena are rectified by absorbing and diffusing the sound energy.
Crudely speaking, you just need some soft ‘absorbent’ furnishings to balance with hard ‘reflective’ surfaces. There is obviously more to it than that to get a nicely balanced result and to meet the functionality of the room, or to meet particular building standards.
We can model the space to predict the effects of introducing one thing or another. We can include in the models existing surface finishes, furnishings, even the presence of people, in order to achieve the right atmosphere when the room is in use.
What are your guiding principles when it comes to making sure the acoustics of a space sound comfortable?
I derive immense pleasure from designs and experiences where everything `fits into place`, perfectly. Form will always take second place to function, but that rarely means compromise. It is the same with acoustics and rooms, the acoustics are an intrinsic part of the whole experience and must be perfect. I strive to achieve this by considering:
What is the intended function of the room?
Who will be using it?
What else might the space be used for?
How will it look?
What are your favourite interior trends that help with acoustic qualities?
The most useful trend is not a product or aesthetic, but an attitude. Interior designers are increasingly prepared to listen, understand, and accept that acoustics is a ‘thing’ that is not only ‘worth’ considering, but that it must be considered, for health and wellbeing purposes.
Once it is accepted as being a ‘must’, it is no longer a compromise, a hinderance, an option or an added cost. It is a must, and it doesn’t always need any further attention, so long as it has been considered.
So what is an absorber
To soak up unwanted sound energy, it has to be absorbed, just like soaking up unwanted water with a sponge. Everything has an ability to absorb kinetic sound energy to some degree, but an ‘acoustic absorber’ per-se is a product that is particularly good at soaking it up. It works by letting the sound waves in and causing the air to change direction thousands of times. The friction in doing so turns the kinetic energy into heat. Brickwork, glass and stone are not good absorbers, so a room made from these materials will be very resonant, with terrible reverberation, like a squash court. Heavy curtains, bedding and soft furnishings are very absorbent, so a room full of these items will sound very ‘dead’ and have very little reverberation. One can add dedicated absorbers to an interior that are very efficient to compensate for other hard surfaces, or you can design targeted absorbers that soak up particular problem frequencies.
Isn’t acoustics just foam-covered panels?
The most common types of dedicated absorbers are fabric covered `porous` panels whereby a specialised foam or mineral fibre substrate is covered in an acoustically transparent fabric or photo print. These can be attached to a wall or suspended from the ceiling and you can choose colours, shapes and sizes.
BUT the options go far beyond this:
For a start you can cover the substrates in your own fabrics. The substrates can be incorporated into other items in the room - perhaps the rear panel of a library, under a tabletop or chair seats, recessed into a coffered ceiling, behind pierced screens, slatted wood or bamboo for example
Then there is acoustic plaster. A high-tech solution that when it is done looks like beautifully applied plaster, following contours and making perfect junctions with other features. Yet is a good absorber, thus controlling reverberation invisibly and maintaining elegance and a clean look.
Finally, there are bespoke absorbers disguised as other objects, and designed to target problematic frequency ranges particular to that room; panel absorbers, membrane absorbers, Helmholtz absorbers.
A combination of the options above can normally yield a great result.
What are your top 5 easy tips for designers/home-owners to bear in mind when considering the interior finishes of their refurbishment or new-build?
Balance hard reflective surfaces with softer absorbent surfaces.
Make at least one of any parallel pair surfaces absorbent, i.e. ceiling or floor, and left or right, and front or back.
Break sound waves up with objects against walls, like a bookcase.
Incorporate angled / curved walls and pitched / contoured ceiling if possible
Incorporate absorption into items of furniture, behind wall hangings, under tables and chairs.
What has been your favourite commission/creation/project?
This has to be one of the first residential projects I was involved in. It was for a couple who had just finished their ‘Chilmark stone’ cottage rebuild.
The kitchen looked stunning; stone floor, large bi-fold window, marble worktops and an open plan dining space. They were very happy, until their first dinner party. The clatter of crockery, and chatter of twelve people after a few drinks just got louder and louder, everyone trying to be heard above the next. They couldn’t wait for it to end.
I designed an acoustic plaster panel above the dining table reflecting its shape and sitting down from the ceiling by only a few centimetres. It not only housed the down lights, but concealed a much deeper cavity behind, the properties of which allowed a wide range of frequencies in, but never let them out!
The panel actually contributed to the aesthetic by defining the dining area, it was as if it had always been there, and worked perfectly.
Simple but brilliant.
How do acoustics effect wellbeing?
As far back as 1900 Robert Koch, a Nobel Prize winning bacteriologist recognised that sound could do us serious harm, and predicted that “One day, mankind will fight noise [in our lives] as relentlessly as Cholera and the Plague”. What he was beginning to recognise, and that with modern medical development we can now confirm, is the broad reaching negative impact that excess noise has on our lives, from mental health, to sensory distortion, and physical damage. Too much ‘noise’ in your life is stressful, but too little makes you feel awkward and uncomfortable, so achieving the right acoustic balance for the functionality of you room is essential.
Hearing is a sense that is the first to awake in the womb, and then never switches off. It is our primeval warning system that watches over us even when we are not aware or awake. When it senses something of concern, it triggers the release of a variety of hormones in the brain that cause us to respond, involuntarily in particular ways…
Let’s take a few negative examples:
Noisy restaurants make conversation and privacy difficult, which is stressful and unenjoyable. Stress causes the release of cortisol which zaps our appetite in readiness for a ‘fight or flight’ response. Acid production in the stomach is increased to ‘speed up digestion’ and adrenaline diverts blood to our muscles.
A ‘Soundprint’ survey in 2018 with over 60,000 submissions revealed that 80% of people have left a restaurant at some point in their lives due to noise, 91% of us have boycotted restaurants because of noise. The statistics go on!
Research by a professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University, conducted in both the laboratory and restaurants shows that factors like acoustics, background music and noise levels affect our perception of what we eat and drink. For example, a noisy environment suppresses our sense of sweetness and salt. How can you ignore that when designing a kitchen dining space?
It is accepted that our cognitive skills naturally reduce as you get older, noticeably over 50, so deciphering what is being said amid a noisy or reverberant environment can become very difficult. This is stressful and results in isolation, loneliness and a feeling of detachment. Are 11 million of us just nodding along in conversations?
The Word Health Organisation has established that night-time noise causes a continuous stress response even when you are ‘asleep’. This slowly wears you down causing tiredness, irritability, mental health problems and loss of concentration.
A generally noisy lifestyle causes irreparable hearing damage, and the threshold at which this actually happens is surprisingly low.
On the positive side, a quiet atmosphere with low reverberation is conducive to communication, eating, privacy, sleep, learning, creativity and intimacy. Need any more convincing?