The 25th District Courthouse in Plaquemine’s Parish Louisiana was having difficulty with the unsatisfactory acoustic quality of their two large courtrooms. The primary concern was excessive reverberation in the space, making it difficult to hear judges, attorneys, and testimony. This greatly impacted the efficiency of legal proceedings during hearings and trials, so the courthouse was going to require acoustic treatment.
Related: Acoustic Treatment Best Practices for Courthouses
Poor Courthouse Acoustics
The Judges and facility manager explained to Commercial Acoustics that the stenographer was unable to effectively record the dialogue of witnesses — particularly if the witness’ speech was mumbled or at low volume. Even through the use of microphones and an AV system, the judges, jurors, and stenographer had difficulty hearing intelligibly and experienced poor speech intelligibility.
The courtroom had a high as-built Reverberation time when Commercial Acoustics took measurements for the kick-off meeting. The exposed drywall ceilings and walls, along with wood paneling and low-pile carpet created a space with mostly hard surface finishes.
After measuring the reverberation time, Commercial Acoustic’s engineer calculated the amount of absorption required to reduce this reverb time to acceptable levels.
Courthouse Acoustic Treatment with Acoustic Wall Panels
During installation, the prefabricated custom-size acoustic wall panels were placed strategically along the open wall space behind the stenographer, witness stand, and jury box – focusing on these key areas. Additional panels were placed on the walls behind the spectators to treat this less critical area as well.
Per LEEDv4, the recommended design reverberation time is as follows:
- Courtroom with amplified speech (speakers): < 1.0s
- Courtroom with no amplified speech: <0.7s
Courthouse Acoustic Treatment – Results
Upon completion of the project, Commercial Acoustics re-measured the reverberation time, finding that it was reduced from a 1.4s-1.7s range, to a 0.7s-0.8s range, approximately a 50% reduction in each courtroom. The 25th District Courtrooms were comfortably below the 1.0s amplified speech requirement, and the judges have had greatly improved court sessions since completion.
If your courtroom or municipal facility struggles with echo or reverberation issues, consider Commercial Acoustics to design and install Acoustic Treatment options, including Acoustic Wall Panels or Stretched-Fabric Wall Systems.
