Scenario:

Pherm Brewing had just moved into their newly constructed brewery and taproom when they encountered a very common acoustic issue for breweries, restaurants, and coffee shops: It was a beautiful space, but too loud, echoey, and reverberant.

The challenge:

 The goal for the taproom was to create a fun, energetic, and comfortable environment for guests to enjoy their beer, food, and live music. The problem was the room had a much too long reverb time (RT60). (Long reverb times lead to spaces being too loud due to volume.)

 When restaurants or taprooms have long reverb times, causes a lot of problems such as: It makes it difficult for guests to converse with their friends and servers, it causes the shrill sound of a chair moving across the floor reverberating throughout the room, it can cause stress and fatigue for servers and staff, and ultimately, can lead to an uncomfortable environment that customers don’t want to return to. 

 Our goal was to fix all of this so that the sound never crossed anyone’s mind when they walked into the taproom. MCA aimed to bring down the reverb time so the space was controlled, but still lively and energetic, a comfortable space for guests to converse, make friends, enjoy the beer, and take in live music. 

 The challenge here was taking an already-completed room and incorporating enough acoustic panels to achieve the acoustic improvement MCA envisioned.

The solution: A whole lot of High-Mid Acoustic Panels

After running reverb time projections, Music City Acoustics was able to determine the most effective location and quantity for acoustic panels in the taproom. From there, they built out a 3d model of the space in order to sketch a layout for the Acoustic Panels. That way, they could see where the treatments could be placed without taking away from the taproom’s look and feel.

 The result was an acoustic treatment layout that utilized space high up on the walls above the windows, furniture, artwork, and panels suspended from the ceiling joist.

Music City Acoustics built 76 of their 4’x2’ High-Mid Acoustic Panels, boxed them up, and shipped them off to Pherm Brewery in Maryland. They did a fantastic job installing the panels themselves. Turns out, they are great at making beer and pretty handy.

After installing the Acoustic Panels, the improved acoustics in the taproom were immediately noticed – the reverb time was cut in half. At the completion of the space, it was easier to order, converse, enjoy live music in the taproom, and most importantly experience their beer.