If you’ve spent big on a home theatre, you’ll be astounded to hear of someone who has three—at least until you learn that Wavetrain Acoustics uses theirs to demonstrate, to anyone interested, three levels of soundproofing and home cinema sophistication.
Pyrotek were certainly intrigued when asked by Wavetrain Acoustics’ David Moseley in early 2006 to contribute advice and their Soundguard soundproofing materials to the project, just completed in Taren Point, south of Sydney, and opened on May 3 to prospective owners, designers and builders by appointment.
A home theatre consultant who lectures in cinema acoustics for CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association) and designs cinemas around Australia, David has expertise won from a chequered career including studies and employment in architecture, joinery design, hi-fi retail, a diploma in building and cinema design courses in the USA.
Wavetrain Acoustics is not an audio video retailer, but rather works with the top custom audio/video companies around Australia in a partnership that works to the client’s advantage. It provides design services for sound isolation, internal room acoustics and all aspects of interior design/fitout. David also personally calibrates all his completed designs to ensure optimal performance.
About his new project, David says “There’s never been a facility like this in Australia where you can see and hear for yourself the difference between three approaches to soundproofing, home cinema acoustics and cinema decor, from lowest cost, through to the ultimate in room design.”
Having learned of David’s vision, Pyrotek recommended and supplied Wavebar—a flexible, barium-loaded acoustic barrier boasting outstanding performance particularly at low frequencies—and new Subdue—a composite panel board that is a construction material and soundproofing barrier to airborne noise all in one.
These soundproofing products David used to attain a scaled progression of soundproofing effectiveness from the Bronze Room, through the Silver Room to the Gold Room.
In broad terms, the Bronze Room is built as one might modify a spare room at home for the purpose, with single skin timber walls, cut-outs for speakers and air conditioning ducts, and standard attention to detail, but with a solid core door and well insulated walls and ceiling.
While also made with single skin walls, the Silver Room boasts in addition a floating floor, acoustic grade plasterboard and insulation, copious application of polyurethane sealant, quality seals on a door made of Subdue and elimination of wall penetrations for speakers, electrical outlets and so on.
In another step up, the Gold Room’s walls are a complex layering of timber, acoustic-grade plasterboard, a resilient layer and Wavebar. The entrance is an airlock with a special inner door designed to absorb sound and an outer door made of Subdue. Apart from the acoustic treatments found in the other two cinema rooms, the room also incorporates specially designed base traps and a projector hush box.
The air-conditioning unit for the cinema is actually completely outside it, on top. Ducted air from this unit passes through specially-designed external attenuation boxes, exiting into the room via an A/C plenum mounted inside the cinema and connected using Wavebar, whose dead-mass resilience stops sound energy escaping after its passage through the attenuation box and stops sound transmission between the structural components.
Reporting on the performance of the three rooms, David says: “Outside the Silver is about 12 dB quieter than outside the Bronze for the same sound volume inside, and outside the Gold is about 12 dB quieter than outside the Silver.”
According to Pyrotek’s David Smart, who helped David Moseley make the right choices of Soundguard products, 12 dB is much more than it sounds to the uninitiated because the decibel scale is not linear. “In fact, for every 3 dB drop, sound pressure level is cut by half,” David Smart claims.
“The facility is not about facing you with a choice between three distinct take-it-or-leave-it options,” David Moseley says. “Rather, it’s about helping you decide where to spend on the aspects of your home cinema that are your priorities. The three rooms we’ve built at Wavetrain Acoustics are there for your senses to sample the full spectrum of audio/visual quality available from today’s technology.”
Wavetrain Acoustics also designs and sells home cinema décor to enhance your experience including lighting, décor, cinema seating and acoustic treatments.
David Smart concludes, “We at Pyrotek have already recommended several customers visit Wavetrain Acoustics to hear for themselves how Soundguard soundproofing products perform in practice. For anyone wishing to experience how true home cinema should look and sound, visiting this facility is a must.”