Flying Fruit Fly Circus Acoustic Treatment

The Challenge

A room used for training, teaching and creative development needs to support clear communication. When reverberation is too high, however, voices remain audible long after the words are spoken. Instructions overlap, group discussions become difficult to follow, and normal activity can make the room feel louder and more demanding than it should.

Flying Fruit Fly Circus is Australia’s national youth circus and delivers a full-time circus training program alongside academic education for young people. In this type of environment, students and trainers rely on precise verbal instructions, attentive listening and clear communication.

The Rectangle Room contained a large timber floor, high angled ceiling, broad walls and windows. These hard surfaces reflected sound rather than absorbing it. Before treatment, the supplied acoustic measurements recorded an average reverberation time of 2.15 seconds.

The issue was not the students, trainers or activities taking place in the room. It was the acoustic behaviour of the space. Sound generated during instruction, conversation and movement continued reflecting between the ceiling, walls and floor.

SoundFix’s guide to understanding acoustic panels explains that untreated reflective surfaces are a common cause of echo in large educational and multipurpose rooms. The Rectangle Room required targeted sound absorption to support its varied uses.

The Solution

SoundFix Acoustics recommended a ceiling-based acoustic treatment designed to reduce reverberation without limiting the room’s usable wall or floor space.

The ceiling was the largest available reflective surface and provided an effective location for introducing broad sound absorption. Installing panels overhead allowed SoundFix to target sound travelling upwards from voices, training activities and group use before it could reflect back into the room.

The selected acoustic ceiling panels were arranged across the angled ceiling surfaces. Their light finish complemented the existing interior and allowed the treatment to blend with the room’s architecture rather than visually dominate it.

Acoustic panels work by absorbing part of the sound energy that would otherwise continue bouncing between hard surfaces. This shortens the time sound remains audible, reduces echo and improves speech clarity. SoundFix’s education acoustic solutions are planned around the practical communication needs of classrooms, training rooms and multipurpose learning environments.

The purpose was not to make the room silent. Circus education is naturally active, energetic and collaborative. The aim was to control unnecessary reflections so instructors could communicate more clearly and students could participate in a more balanced acoustic environment.

The Installation

The Rectangle Room presented a detailed ceiling layout with exposed beams, lighting, air-conditioning, suspended fixtures and angled architectural sections. The installation therefore required careful measurement and planning.

SoundFix positioned the acoustic ceiling panels around the existing building services while maintaining broad and consistent coverage. Panels were distributed across the ceiling rather than concentrated in one area, helping address reflections throughout the length and width of the room.

The geometric arrangement worked with the roof structure and existing ceiling lines. The pale panels integrated naturally with the room’s finishes, preserving its bright, open appearance while adding the sound absorption needed for better performance.

Professional panel placement is important because acoustic results depend on more than the product alone. The number of panels, their spacing and their relationship to reflective surfaces all influence the final reverberation time.

SoundFix managed the project from acoustic measurement and solution planning through to panel supply and installation. This full-service approach ensured that the treatment responded to the actual behaviour of the room rather than relying on a standard decorative layout.

The completed installation retained access to lighting, ventilation and other ceiling services while transforming a major reflective surface into an effective acoustic treatment area.

The Outcome

Performing arts education spaces are expected to support movement, instruction, concentration and creative exploration. They are rarely quiet environments, nor should they be. The acoustic goal is not to remove activity but to prevent the building from unnecessarily amplifying it.

When reverberation is excessive, students may need to work harder to understand instructions. Educators may raise their voices repeatedly, and group activity can become acoustically overwhelming. Controlling reflected sound supports communication and makes the room easier to use across different activities and occupancy levels.

This project involved acoustic treatment rather than soundproofing. Acoustic treatment reduces echo and reverberation within a room. Soundproofing is a separate construction approach intended to limit sound travelling between different rooms or through the building envelope. SoundFix explains this distinction in its guide to acoustic panels and soundproofing.

At Flying Fruit Fly Circus, treating the ceiling reduced reverberation by 47% without taking away the room’s flexibility or architectural character.

The project shows that good performing arts acoustics support more than sound quality. They help create an environment where young people can listen, learn, collaborate and develop their skills with greater clarity and comfort.

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Following installation, the Rectangle Room’s average reverberation time reduced from 2.15 seconds to 1.13 seconds.

This represents a measured 47% reduction in reverberation time.

The improvement was recorded across the tested frequency range. At 500 Hz, reverberation reduced from 2.17 seconds to 1.17 seconds. At 1 kHz, it reduced from 2.13 seconds to 1.09 seconds, while at 2 kHz it reduced from 2.40 seconds to 1.08 seconds. These mid-frequency bands are particularly relevant to everyday speech and verbal instruction.

In practical terms, sound now fades more quickly instead of continuing to circulate through the room. Instructions can be easier to distinguish, group conversations feel more controlled, and the space is better suited to teaching, training and collaborative activities.

The outcome demonstrates why measurable acoustic assessment matters. Rather than simply assuming that the panels made a difference, SoundFix compared reverberation before and after installation. The result was a more functional multipurpose room that retained its open, energetic character while providing significantly improved acoustic control for the students, educators and creative professionals who use it.