Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Some, but Not enough

Working in conference rooms, people far too often are concerned about the look ( big windows, natural light, great table ) and less concerned about acoustics than would be reasonable. In my experience, Architects think people just sit around the table, and chat.

I once had a brand new office upfit project with a "flagship room" that was a large flex space, (could be a board meeting, could be a hackathon). There were three sides of glass, a concrete floor and metal ceiling structure. If you clapped in the room, it could be heard for 1.5 seconds as it bounced across all those surfaces before decaying.

My bosses were furious at the microphone quality, the installer was unhelpful and bailed on us. We hired a consultant to perform an evaluation and he told us that the room was awful, with lots of numbers ( figures for acoustic reverberation at different frequencies ) and told us of certain products that could help in those ranges.

It is a lot easier to design rooms with acoustic features than it is to retrofit them in terrible sounding rooms.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2025 batch! Applications are open till May 13

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: