Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Why We Need Acoustical Treatment in the Oasis Ballroom!
“If you’re going to talk to me,
quit mumbling!”
By Darrel Favrhow
“I don’t listen to the radio anymore.”
“The movies are too loud!”
“I don’t enjoy myself at parties anymore, because they’re too noisy.”
Ever stop to think it might be you?
We all go through life thinking things never change—but they do; and our ears, or hearing, like the rest of our aging carcass, does, too.
It’s a sneaky, underhanded, damnably insidious change, occurring over time, ever so slightly, year after year. Before you know it, we’re saying, “Huh?” “What?” “Eh?”
This condition, usually called “selective hearing” by wives, (including my own) is more prevalent in men than it is in women. (Although women suffer from age-related hearing loss as well)
This hearing loss, barring accidents or disease, is called “Presbycusis.” (prez-bee-KYOO-sis)
That’s when our conversations seem to take place at a distance of 30 feet or more, or someone sounds like they’re speaking in a closet, or worse, down the block!
It also shortens tempers! We have to keep asking people to repeat themselves. We think they’re mumbling and they think we’re thickheaded! “Beatrice, get your head out of the cabinet, turn around and speak directly to me and I’ll understand what you are saying!”
If that’s not enough to whiten your sideburns, you’ll also be pleased to know that at the same time, we also lose our ability to understand the normally spoken word when there is any other sound in the room such as a TV or other conversations taking place.
Don’t be concerned. Lighten up Charlie! All this is normal—unfortunate as hell, but normal. Our condition may require mechanical intervention in the form of hearing aids--even when our ego says, “There’s nothing wrong with my damned hearing, just speak up!”
It’s not that easy. Let’s take a quick, graphic look at our hearing compared with that of a young person of, let’s say, about 21 years old. See where our “senior” hearing, in red, falls off, while the younger persons hearing is essentially flat throughout the range of frequencies? 
Now, you know why our music enjoyment is diminished! We’re losing our ability to hear the higher frequencies--especially in music!
Now, you know why our music enjoyment is diminished! We’re losing our ability to hear the higher frequencies--especially in music!
Couple that natural shortcoming with the other one-- the inability to distinguish between sounds such as hearing and understanding speech in a large, acoustically “live” room such as a gymnasium. (Or our very own clubhouse ballroom) This phenomenon results from the reverberation of the sound waves off the hard surfaced walls, bouncing from one wall to the other creating multiple sound sources of the same original sound! That wouldn’t be too bad except for the fact that since sound travels at approximately 1,100 feet per second, these sounds have a “built-in” delay! That means you’re hearing the same sounds, but milliseconds apart, which tends to muffle the original sound and render it unintelligible! Couple that with our original “senior” hearing problem and we have an explosively frustrating hearing situation occurring!
Some facilities use this “frustration factor” to their own advantage--McDonald’s, for example. When you go in for a burger, you want to get in and out FAST! That’s because it is acoustically uncomfortable. They do this on purpose, using lots of glass and hard surfaces to bounce the sound around. (Ever see a carpeted McDonalds?) By making customers psychologically uncomfortable, they discourage leisurely dining and they can “turn the tables” faster, gaining more business in less time! (The “hot” colors help them do the same job! Vivid colors such as yellow and orange are too bright to encourage relaxing.
By acoustically “softening” the sound in a room, it will have a more relaxing effect, absorbing unwanted harmonics, allowing the original sound, (speech or music) to travel a more direct route to the ear of the listener. (That’s why your living room is so comfortable, your bedroom so inviting. Carpeting, bedding and sofas absorb sound, killing reverberation and echoes.
Try a short experiment. Walk into our clubhouse library. Have a short conversation with someone. Walk into the Craft room, just fifty feet away, and have the same conversation. You’ll most certainly hear the difference—even with your senior ears!
We don’t want to psychologically frustrate our “customers!” Our clubhouse ballroom desperately needs an effective acoustical wall treatment so we seniors can hear what’s going on! By using draperies and placing sound absorbing panels on the walls, we can “tune” the room, reducing the reverberation times cutting down on unwanted sound waves. This will make our clubhouse ballroom a more enjoyable place for information exchange, comfortable dining, staged entertainment or simply relaxing with others in a friendly game of Mahjong.
