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https://www.vox.com/2018/4/18/17168504/restaurants-noise-levels-loud-decibels
" Greg Keffer, a partner with the Rockwell Group, an architecture and design firm, has worked on a number of restaurants with good reputations for acoustics, including Union Square Cafe in New York City. He noted that many common sound-controlling treatments — like spray-on foams or sound panels — “don’t look like a beautifully finished material.” So making sure your restaurant doesn’t feel or appear like a sound studio means investing in subtle sound-absorbing materials and treatments, which tend to be expensive.
For example, a custom acoustical finish system like Fellert can masquerade as stone or concrete and tamp down noise levels — but it costs a lot more to put in place than just leaving a ceiling raw. Simply sound-paneling a big ceiling can cost upward of $50,000. "
" Having said that, there are also low-cost techniques that can tamp down noise levels: carpets, table cloths, wall tapestries, drapes, plants. But they’ve mostly fallen out of fashion. "
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brudgers 18 hours ago [-]
But doing acoustics right, it turns out, can be really expensive.
Mitigating the kind of noise restaurants can create isn't expensive. There's an off the shelf engineered solution that's been around for almost 70 years. Acoustic ceiling tiles. Restaurants are loud because acoustic ceiling tiles are out of fashion even though significantly less expensive than hard surfaces and exposed building services+structure if painted.[1] Though carpeting and upholstery help, acoustic treatment of the ceiling is the first line of noise mitigation. [2]
[1]: Among the most costly finishes are services and structures fabricated to aesthetic criteria.
[2]: The stylistic trend away from acoustic ceiling tile, carpets, and upholstery further erodes acoustic privacy in open offices.
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Anechoic 14 hours ago [-]
1. Just adding absorption to the ceiling isn't enough - absorption on the ceilings help kill ceiling reflections, but you still need to deal with reflections from the floor, walls and various surfaces. Absorption works best if it is distributed around around the room.
2. In addition to being unattractive, another reason acoustic ceiling tiles aren't popular is that they are difficult to clean compared to smooth, hard surfaces. There are acoustic surface finishes from brands like Pyrok and BASWA that can be cleaned with industrial cleaners, but those finishes are expensive to install.
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fencepost 4 hours ago [-]
another reason acoustic ceiling tiles aren't popular is that they are difficult to clean compared to smooth, hard surfaces.
I fail to believe that restaurants are getting up into their exposed industrial design ceiling spaces and doing good cleaning.
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brudgers 4 hours ago [-]
Adding ceiling tiles to the ceiling goes a long way. It may or may not be enough depending on what enough is. I mean, and as I suspect you know, masking is also important and both masking and absorption need to be tuned to specific human relevant frequencies in the acoustic environment. Kitchens are the critical restaurant ceilings in terms of cleaning. Both USG and Armstrong make cleanable ceiling tiles suitable for kitchens with many decades of successful performance across many restaurant installations. Less exotic tiles (if cleanable tiles are exotic) also have proven performance in dining and other areas. The proven performance is what made ceiling tile a ubiquitous default across building types...
...anyway, tiles outperform what most designers are capable of coming up with on their own and do so with little or no consideration on the designer's part. Loud restaurants largely reflect little or no consideration in the face of changing fashions. Then again, the restaurant business is so iffy that careful attention to acoustics is probably premature optimization. In five years it won't matter because the restaurant will be gone.
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