Functionality and versatility are two features that happily occupy the same space when we refer to acoustic curtains. The product is a fully-featured sound absorption blanket, naturally, but the fabric is also open to user-mandated modifications, including track mountings. Let’s leave that flexibility feature for later and begin today with the acoustic-cancelling drapes that hang inside large halls and auditoriums.
Segregating Open Rooms with Acoustic Curtains
Drapes have been in use for decades in gyms and auditoriums as an echo-cancelling mechanism. The fabric looks soft and inviting, but its primary purpose is to dampen harsh sounds before they reflect and propagate. Additionally, noise partitioning curtains use a collapsible design to imbue multi-purpose floor spaces with sound isolating characteristics. A noisy community center, as one example, can play a minor sporting event in one partition while a yoga session is quietly conducted in the opposing section of the same room.
Sound Studios and the Performing Arts
The partitioning feature jumps to the fore when acoustic curtains are used in these sound-sensitive professions. The curtain rises on the stage, but secondary drapes hang alongside the stage exits to dampen backstage murmurs. These can then be drawn back on a track to allow players access as an acting cue approaches. The studio environment needs a more comprehensive drapery solution, as lower or higher frequencies may be permitted. A “tuned” product is likely favoured in this specialized instance.
Industrial-Grade Baffling Solutions Use Curtains
The thick but porous fabrics used in a noisy language laboratory in a school classroom are perfect sound isolating products, but something more dynamic is required for industrial noise. Pleated and quilted curtains with fiberglass cores are popular when superior acoustical attenuation is required. This is a particularly apt solution when a temporary machine, perhaps an electrical generator, needs to be installed outside a normally quiet establishment. The collapsible curtains assure local occupants of a noise controlled operation, but the temporary partition won’t cost a bundle to install.
Sound-absorbing drapery is like a fine piece of apparel, in that it can assume many shapes and be built from a copious selection of fabrics. A thick wool is a fine hanging asset when wall spaces are inaccessible or not likely to qualify for wall panels. The curtains can be opened or closed, collapsed or retracted across glass, and there’s an option to layer the product further. This means thermal insulation is possible, as is light attenuation, thanks to a blackout lining.