More Than Food – Conestoga Rovers Engineering Smarter Spaces for Restaurants

Waterloo, Ontario (PRWEB) June 11, 2014

Noise Pollution is a growing global urban problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) says it seriously harms human health. An interesting statistic from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association estimates that 30 million Americans are exposed to dangerous noise levels on a regular basis.

Noise pollution can lead to hearing loss, sleep disturbances, and fatigue headaches. Inside or outside communities are working to make changes. An interesting case study has recently happened in the restaurant industry.

Reducing Noise Pollution can be simple in small spaces. A good example is Taco Farm, an innovative restaurant in Waterloo, Ontario. It opened less than a year ago. It had delicious food, excellent service and a cool location, but customers and staff were struggling with the noise levels.

We take feedback from our customers seriously, says Ryan Good, Taco Farm co-owner. Taco Farm has a great atmosphere, but the sound was reverberating off the high flat ceiling making it very difficult to hear. Our staff were complaining about headaches and we knew we had to do something.

Ryan Good called Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, industry experts in noise reduction, Tim Wiens and Joey Jraige. Sound softening techniques are mostly used in large theatre spaces, but Wiens says more businesses and restaurants are looking to the engineers. We are interested in designing smarter spaces, and sound is a big part of that.

The Conestoga-Rovers & Associates team used a sound technique that is traditionally used in theatre spaces to decrease the sound in crowded areas.

The acoustic absorbing panels reduced the reverberation time by 30%. Reverberation makes hearing incredibly difficult because an overlapping of speech sounds occurs. That significantly reduces speech intelligibility.

The panels blend in with the hip dcor at Taco Farm, and most people dont even notice them. What they will notice is that they dont have to shout to speak to the person next to them. We call it speech privacy, explains Tim Wiens.

The effect has been dramatic. Our staff and customers noticed immediately. Anything we can do to make someones dining experience better is great, says Ryan Good.

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More Than Food - Conestoga Rovers Engineering Smarter Spaces for Restaurants