Acoustically Treating A Room With Too Much Echo

Today I want to talk about something that is related to soundproofing, but is much different than soundproofing itself. What I woud like to discuss today is "Sound Conditioning" or Acoustical Treatments products.
In a large spaces, such as a church sanctuary or an auditorium, or even a gymnasium, sound has a tendency to reverberate or echo. The reason for the echo is the fact that most of these areas are constructed with hard surfaces such as tile or marble floors and generally drywall or plaster on the walls and ceilings. This environment is perfect for reflective noise to bounce around and reflect off all of these hard surfaces for what seems like forever. In larger rooms the reverb time can be 7 seconds or even greater. This much reverb is at times unbearable and presents a poor atmosphere for concerts or any type of entertainment venue.
Restaurants always need acoustical treatments so that their clientele can hear one another while dining together.Often times in a poorly treated restaurant, you might hear the person 5 tables down clearly, but you can't hear the person you are dining with at all. This is common in most restaurants and is caused by the reflecting sound in the restaurant that is bouncing off all of the hard rigid surfaces. This can increase the reverberation time to nearly 7 seconds. This is unsatisfactory for the comfort of the patrons of and dining establishment.
There are a multitude of things that can be done to stop or at least reduce the echo and reverb in any given space.
Soft surfaces on the walls and the ceiling can stop the endless reverberation. It is pretty much like trying to stop a golf ball bouncing around in a boxcar. Soft absorbent surfaces on the walls and ceiling areas can drastically reduce the reveb time in any room.
You can learn more about acoustical treatment options by simply goint to www.soundproofingamerica.com and reading more about Echoless Panels, Silent panels, FG fabric wrapped panels or any of their wonderful acoustical treatment products. Don't hesitate to call the experts at Soundproofing America, Inc. Thanks for your time, Dr Bob....Out.