Spectra Tech can assume complete responsibility for assuring proper patient & staff privacy, controlling noise, and optimizing speech, music, and program presentation in your auditorium.
We do not sell or install acoustical materials. We are design consultants who represent your interests.
Achievement of your privacy, communication, and presentation goals is dependent on many inter-related facility and system design factors, and requires coordination of all aspects of architectural, interior, mechanical, and electrical systems designs.
Spectra Tech can coordinate this effort and perform the following services:
- Assist in achieving noise / vibration control and privacy performance in compliance with the Facilities Guidelines Institute (FGI) “Sound & Vibration: Design Guidelines for Health Care Facilities” and “Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities”
- Assist in determining user needs within our areas of expertise
- Conduct on-site survey of existing building construction, systems, and equipment in order to identify sources of objectionable sound transmission, noise and vibration.
- Ask “the right questions” to properly elicit critical design and performance expectations
- Recommend optimum performance objectives for all aspect of project design affecting privacy, communication and program presentation
- Prepare bid & contract documents, including plans and specifications
- Prepare budget estimates for materials, installation labor, and support services
- Identify and prequalify acceptable contractors
- Bid and contract administration
- Performance testing to assist in fine-tuning mechanical systems HVAC installation and assure contractor compliance with contract obligations.
Patient & Staff Privacy
Treatment of patients in a hospital, medical center, or medical office requires privacy, comfort, and a nurturing environment. Lack of acoustical privacy is often cited as one of the most distracting aspects of care by patients in performance surveys such as HIPAA. The presence of noise and vibration from HVAC systems, other equipment, and intruding exterior noise sources (highways, aircraft flyovers, railroads, etc.) can have a negative impact on fragile patient health and staff’s ability to perform their functions without error. Medical facilities are therefore constructed to meet stringent design standards. Speech privacy, acoustics, noise and vibration control issues are best handled by experts with prior experience in this specialized field.
Spectra Tech can perform the following services:
- Optimize patient rooms and medical treatment room designs for speech privacy and vibration control to optimize HIPAA survey results
- Guide the acoustical design and construction of your facility
- Perform onsite testing to quantify acoustic privacy and performance in an existing facility, and compare the test results to established performance standards
- Working from blueprint drawings, we can predict key acoustical performance results in advance of construction, using our proprietary computer-based technologies (see link for example)
- Identify any potential acoustical problems and address them before work is undertaken
- Recommend optimium sound absorption, diffusion, and reflective surfaces
- Recommend designs and specifications to achieve optimum sound isolation between the adjacent spaces or exterior noise sources
- Assist your architect or interior designer in selecting appropriate construction materials, finishes, furnishings, equipment, and installation methods necessary to achieve desired results
- Recommend designs and specifications to achieve optimum privacy using sound masking systems (where appropriate)
Acoustics Optimization
Many areas of facilities, such as auditoriums, classrooms, patient consultation rooms, and meeting rooms, are constructed with the express purpose of allowing audio communication involving a substantial number of people. Thoughts, ideas and feelings are exchanged through the medium of acoustics, in the form of speech, music, and other audio presentations. In these spaces, it is imperative that the acoustic medium be designed to optimize the effectiveness of the audio communications.
Spectra Tech can perform the following services:
- Optimize room designs for speech and program intelligibility
- Guide the acoustical design and construction of your facility
- Perform onsite testing to quantify acoustic performance in an existing facility, and compare the test results to established performance standards
- Working from blueprint drawings, we can predict key acoustical performance results in advance of construction, using our proprietary computer-based technologies
- Identify any potential acoustical problems and address them before work is undertaken
- Recommend optimium sound absorption, diffusion, and reflective surfaces
- Recommend designs and specifications to achieve optimum sound isolation between the adjacent spaces or exterior noise sources
- Assist your architect or interior designer in selecting appropriate construction materials, finishes, furnishings, equipment, and installation methods necessary to achieve desired results
Noise and Vibration Control:
Sound and vibration are natural by-products of practically all mechanical, electrical, and human activity. Low levels of sound emission and vibration are usually ignored, and are accepted as part of our everyday background sounds. When a particular sound or vibration significantly exceeds the acceptable background level for a facility, except for the purpose of communication, we refer to it as “noise”.
Spectra Tech can perform the following services:
- Perform onsite interior or exterior testing at your facility, identify sources of objectionable noise and vibration, and compare the test results to normally acceptable design standards.
- We can positively identify the sources of noise by recording actual audio associated with the test data. Our system can log data in this manner for up to 1 week unattended.
- Develop strategies for mitigation of noise and vibration.
- Recommend the specific noise control measures which will best suit your particular situation, based on the frequency range and intensity of the noise and vibration we measure.
- On new construction projects, we can work with other members of your design team to identify potential sources of noise and vibration.
- Develop plans and specifications to limit noise and vibration emissions to acceptable levels
- Work with your Mechanical Engineer to develop solutions involving HVAC systems
