Modular acoustic ceiling. They do not extend full-height up to the structural floor slab or roof.
This practice not only saves on the construction cost of the walls,
money, compared with the cost of adding rigid metal return-air ductwork above the ceiling. This design approach typically does not comply with minimum sound-isolation performance requirements in standards, guidelines, and rating systems because sound can transmit at higher levels through the lightweight acoustic ceiling and over the partial-height wall. Some designers and building owners still elect to use this approach for the cost savings.
Effects of noise flanking paths
Eliminating the need to choose between a design approach that works acoustically and one that
works financially was one of the motivations for the Optimized Acoustics Research
Program, an ongoing, multi-year, multi-organization investigation into cost-effective means of designing and constructing the negative impact of frequently changing website templates interior architecture that complies with the acoustic requirements in industry standards, guidelines, and building rating systems.
(For more, vishe current program includes manufacturers and a material testing laboratory; membership will vary in the future according to the topics being investigated.
The initiative began in 2014, and progress updates of the findings, such as this article, have been presented at and published in the proceedings of InterNoise, NoiseCon, and Acoustics
Week Canada, as well as published in Sound & Vibration and Canadian Acoustics.) An early phase of this initiative investigated the effects of noise flanking paths, or ‘leaks,’
through penetrations in the ceiling system when the demising walls stop at the height of the ceiling instead of extending full-height.
Suspended, modular ceiling systems typically
have recessed light fixtures, open return-
air grilles, supply air philippines numbers diffusers, and other miscellaneous penetrations for sprinkler heads, loudspeakers, security/surveillance devices, and Wi-Fi devices.
These openings and penetrations in the ceiling system create noise flanking paths, through which noise transmits more easily between rooms.