Early Learning Centre Acoustic Panels

The Challenge

Early learning environments have a particularly demanding acoustic profile. Children talk, play, laugh and move simultaneously. Educators give instructions, read stories and communicate across different activity zones. The people using the room naturally create sound. The challenge is what happens to that sound afterwards. When a learning space contains large reflective surfaces, sound energy can continue reflecting through the room instead of being absorbed efficiently. Each new voice or activity is then layered over sound that is still decaying from the previous one. The result is reverberation. This can make speech harder to distinguish and the overall environment feel busier and louder than the activity itself would suggest. SoundFix therefore approaches early learning centre acoustics as a room-performance problem rather than simply a question of reducing how much noise children make. Before treatment, SoundFix measured both learning spaces at Creative Garden Early Learning Centre North Lakes. Classroom 1 recorded an overall RT60 of 0.87 seconds, while Classroom 2 also recorded 0.87 seconds. That baseline gave the team something essential: a measurable starting point against which the completed acoustic treatment could later be verified.

For more information on treatment specifically designed for educational environments, explore SoundFix’s acoustic panels for schools and classrooms

The Solution

SoundFix’s solution focused on one of the major reflective surfaces in each room: the ceiling. High-NRC acoustic ceiling panels were installed across the primary reflective ceiling areas to introduce additional sound absorption into the classrooms. Rather than attempting to block sound travelling between spaces, the purpose of this treatment was to control sound within each room.

That distinction matters. Acoustic treatment and soundproofing solve different problems. Soundproofing is principally concerned with limiting sound transmission from one area to another. Acoustic absorption addresses sound reflections and reverberation inside the room.

For Creative Garden Early Learning Centre, the objective was reverberation reduction and improved speech clarity.

By strategically introducing absorptive material overhead, reflected sound energy could be absorbed more effectively rather than repeatedly returning into the learning environment. The ceiling installation also allowed the acoustic treatment to integrate neatly with the existing classrooms. The finished photographs show panels distributed across the ceiling while retaining access around lighting, air-conditioning and other services.

The Installation

One of the most important parts of this project happened both before and after the acoustic panels were installed.

SoundFix used a calibrated NTi Audio XL2 acoustic analyser with a broadband noise source to measure reverberation across the 125 Hz to 8 kHz octave bands. Measurements were taken at two representative positions in each classroom. Crucially, the post-installation assessment used the same analyser, speaker placement and measurement positions as the baseline testing. This allowed SoundFix to make a meaningful direct comparison between the room before and after treatment. The installation itself concentrated high-NRC panels across the primary reflective ceiling areas identified for treatment. This combination of assessment, acoustic panel installation and post-installation verification is central to the SoundFix approach. It means the success of a project does not have to be based only on whether a room appears or feels quieter afterwards. The result can be measured.

For childcare centres, schools and other educational facilities considering acoustic treatment, this also provides facility managers and decision-makers with much stronger evidence of what their investment has actually achieved.

The Outcome

One of the most important parts of this project happened both before and after the acoustic panels were installed.

SoundFix used a calibrated NTi Audio XL2 acoustic analyser with a broadband noise source to measure reverberation across the 125 Hz to 8 kHz octave bands. Measurements were taken at two representative positions in each classroom.

Crucially, the post-installation assessment used the same analyser, speaker placement and measurement positions as the baseline testing. This allowed SoundFix to make a meaningful direct comparison between the room before and after treatment. The installation itself concentrated high-NRC panels across the primary reflective ceiling areas identified for treatment.This combination of assessment, acoustic panel installation and post-installation verification is central to the SoundFix approach.It means the success of a project does not have to be based only on whether a room appears or feels quieter afterwards. The result can be measured. For childcare centres, schools and other educational facilities considering acoustic treatment, this also provides facility managers and decision-makers with much stronger evidence of what their investment has actually achieved.

Before-and-After Acoustic Results

The post-installation measurements demonstrated a significant change in both learning spaces.

In Classroom 1, RT60 reduced from 0.87 seconds before treatment to 0.51 seconds after treatment. That represents a 42% reduction in reverberation.

The results were particularly relevant across the speech-frequency region. After installation, measurements between 500 Hz and 2 kHz were between 0.51 and 0.55 seconds. In Classroom 2, the improvement was even greater. RT60 reduced from 0.87 seconds to 0.42 seconds, representing a 52% reduction. Across 500 Hz to 2 kHz, post-installation measurements were between 0.40 and 0.45 seconds.

Most importantly, the post-installation RT60 results for both rooms sit within the 0.4–0.6 second design range identified in the project report for classrooms and learning spaces under AS/NZS 2107:2016.

The report consequently concluded that speech clarity for students and staff had been substantially improved and that no further treatment was required to meet the SoundFix reduction guarantee.

That is the value of measuring before and after: the improvement isn’t simply heard. It can be demonstrated.