This project was the acoustic renovation of a district courthouse hearing room. The courtroom is an important place for judicial trials, with high requirements for speech clarity. The original large space had hard walls and long mid-low frequency reverberation, resulting in blurred speech. Judges, lawyers and parties often could not hear statements clearly, which affected the efficiency and seriousness of trial proceedings.
The design team adopted a combined scheme of grooved acoustic panels and perforated acoustic panels for side wall and rear wall treatment. Based on the Helmholtz resonance principle, the two panels are precisely matched according to the courtroom volume and acoustic indicators, targeting the 250Hz–1000Hz mid-low frequency noise that most affects speech intelligibility in large official spaces. With the rear air cavity and mineral wool backing, the overall NRC reaches 0.90, realizing full-band balanced sound absorption and optimizing the sound field uniformity of the whole courtroom.
The wood veneer panels have a solemn and elegant appearance, which fits the solemn and formal positioning of the court building. After the transformation, the acoustic test shows that the reverberation time is reduced to the optimal range for judicial speech, the speech intelligibility is increased by 45%, and the sound pressure level difference between each seat area is controlled within 3dB. Whether it is a court trial or a public hearing, clear and accurate auditory effects can be achieved, effectively guaranteeing the smooth progress of judicial activities.
