Georgia Broadcast Studio Acoustic Panels: GPB in Atlanta

• Project: Acoustic Panel Installation for Three New Broadcast Studios
• Location: 260 14th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 (Georgia Public Broadcasting HQ)
• Facility Type: Public Broadcasting and Recording Studios in a Midtown Atlanta Building
• Client: Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB)
• Objective: Reduce Flutter Echo and Hit NRC 1.0 Down to 250 Hz
• Scope: Custom 4″ Wood-Framed Acoustic Panels, Bracket and Impaling Clip Mount

Atlanta-based Georgia Public Broadcasting expanded its broadcast capabilities at its Midtown Atlanta headquarters and built out three new recording studios to meet capacity. Commercial Acoustics was contracted to fabricate and install the acoustic treatment package across all three rooms.

An independent acoustic consultant set the panel thickness and coverage area before we got involved. Our scope was build and install: large-format custom panels framed in wood, wrapped in acoustically transparent fabric, and mounted with a bracket-and-clip system robust enough to handle 4-inch panel weight on a drywall substrate.

• Flutter Echo: Parallel drywall walls cause repeating reflections that smear vocal recordings
• Low-Frequency Buildup: Bass energy from male voices and music ducks below the absorption range of thin panels
• Drop-Ceiling Constraint: Plenum depth limits how much absorption the ceiling can hold
• Background Noise Budget: NC 25 or lower is the design target for clean tracks

Broadcast and recording studios are some of the least forgiving rooms in any commercial acoustic project. The microphone is much closer to the sound source than the human ear ever sits in normal conversation, so reflections that you would barely notice in an office show up as audible smear on a final track. Atlanta-area broadcast facilities almost always need targeted treatment to clean this up.

The bigger issue is bass control. A male voiceover or a baritone instrument concentrates energy below 250 Hz, which is where 1-inch and 2-inch absorption panels start to lose effectiveness. Without low-frequency absorption, the room develops standing waves that color every recording. Our sound absorption coefficient guide breaks down where common panel thicknesses fall off the curve.

• Material: Custom acoustic panels, 4″ thick mineral wool core, wood-framed
• Fabric: Guilford of Maine acoustically transparent face material
• Performance: Absorption coefficient 1.0 down to 250 Hz
• Mount: Bracket system underneath, impaling clips and adhesive into the wall face

The panel build was custom from the frame up. Wood framing gave the panels enough structural rigidity to survive shipping and on-site handling without crushing the absorption core, which is a real risk on 4-inch panels. The wood frame also gave us a clean perimeter to wrap fabric to, which matters on a face that ends up under camera lighting and on broadcast for years.

Acoustically transparent acoustically transparent fabric wraps the panel face. Standard fabric reflects high frequencies before they reach the absorption core, which kills NRC. Acoustically transparent material lets the full audible spectrum into the panel, where it gets converted to heat instead of bouncing back into the room.

Thickness is what unlocks low-frequency control. Our 4″ panels deliver an absorption coefficient of 1.0 down to 250 Hz, which is well below where most off-the-shelf studio treatment falls off. That extended bottom-end performance is the difference between a room that records cleanly and a room that needs constant EQ correction in post.

RT60 targets for studios are tighter than almost any other commercial space. Full music recording rooms aim for 0.3 to 0.5 seconds. Voice and broadcast booths run shorter, around 0.25 to 0.35 seconds, because intelligibility matters more than ambience. Anything above about 0.6 seconds and the room starts coloring every recording.

Hitting those numbers requires high broadband NRC plus extended low-frequency reach. A 1″ panel typically holds NRC 0.85+ above 500 Hz but drops below 0.50 by 125 Hz. A 2″ panel pushes the dropoff down toward 250 Hz. A 4″ panel like the GPB build holds full absorption down through 250 Hz and still contributes meaningfully into the 125 Hz band. That last octave is where male voiceovers and instrumental low end live.

The percentage of wall coverage matters too. Broadcast and podcast rooms typically target 40 to 50 percent of wall surface area in absorption to balance reverberation control against complete deadness. A fully dead room sounds unnatural for voice work and fatigues talent quickly.

Acoustic panel installation is half acoustics, half white-glove finish work. Once the fabric face is exposed in a job-site environment, every drilling pilot hole or contractor moving a ladder past creates dust that permanently dirties the panel. We keep the panels in low-poly wrap until the moment they go on the wall and change gloves whenever a different product or tool gets handled.

Field modifications are the other reality of any custom panel build. Architectural details on the GPB project shifted between drawing set and final field conditions, which meant several panels had to be trimmed or recut on site to fit the actual room geometry. Maintaining a clean fabric edge through that process is what separates a good install from a bad one.

The panels themselves were heavy enough that face-only fastening through impaling clips would have eventually pulled out under their own weight. We added a continuous bracket system underneath each panel that takes the dead load, with impaling clips and structural adhesive on the back face holding the panel flush against the wall. The bracket disappears once the panel is set.

• Pre-Install Test: Calibrated microphone reverberation reading in each empty studio
• Modeling Tool: Sabines calculation for predicted RT60 baseline
• Post-Install Verification: Re-measurement with the same calibrated rig after panel install
• Outcome: Three studios delivered to GPB inside the broadcast RT60 working range

Sabines calculations work well as a planning tool for rectangular rooms with conventional finishes. They struggle with non-rectangular geometry, partial absorption coverage, and the kind of mid-build architectural changes that any real studio fit-out runs into. The right move on a project like this one is to model up front and then verify on site once the panels are mounted. Our room acoustics calculator handles the prediction side of that workflow.

For another Atlanta-area education and broadcast-adjacent acoustic project, see our Georgia State lecture hall case study.

Broadcast and recording studio acoustic treatment is mostly about getting four things right at the same time: panel thickness, coverage percentage, mount detail, and field finish. The checklist below is the short version of what we recommend for any new broadcast or recording studio build, in Atlanta or anywhere else in the Southeast.

1. Specify 4″ Panels for Voice and Bass Work: 1″ and 2″ panels lose absorption below 250 Hz where male voice and instrumental low end live.
2. Cover 40 to 50 Percent of Wall Area: Enough absorption to kill flutter, not so much that the room sounds dead and fatigues talent.
3. Use Acoustically Transparent Fabric: Standard fabric reflects highs before they reach the absorption core. Transparent fabric preserves full broadband NRC.
4. Bracket Heavy Panels at the Bottom: Face-only impaling clips eventually pull out under 4″ panel weight. Continuous bottom bracket carries the load.
5. Verify with a Calibrated Microphone: Sabines modeling sets the design; on-site RT60 measurement confirms the room actually hits target.

Commercial Acoustics provides custom panel manufacturing, white-glove installation, and pre and post RT60 verification for broadcast facilities, recording studios, podcast booths, and corporate AV spaces in Georgia and across the Southeast. Reference product detail for the panel family used here lives on our acoustic absorption panel page.