Taking noise off the menu with our architectural acoustic finishes
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Hard flat surfaces, such as timber floors, tables, and large plastered walls, all of which are commonly found in restaurants, will contribute to poor restaurant acoustics. These hard surfaces reflect sound and therefore increase and amplify noise levels within the restaurant. It’s a downward spiral that we have all experienced at some point in a restaurant, bar or club. When you are eating in a noisy restaurant, or drinking in a busy bar, you speak up in order to be heard by the staff and the people you are with. The problem is that everyone does this, and before you know it, the venue is uncomfortably loud and it completely spoils the atmosphere and experience due to poor restaurant acoustics.
We have the most extensive ranges of seamless, recycled, acoustic decorative finishes for reverberation control in restaurants, offering superb restaurant acoustics without design compromise with our acoustic sprays and acoustic plasters.
HIDE Restaurant
Lusted Green Architects & Andrew Meredith photography
According to Action on Hearing Loss, 79 per cent of people have experienced difficulty holding a conversation while eating out, while 91 per cent said they would not return to venues where noise levels were too high. The charity also found that some restaurants in the UK have noise levels above 95 decibels.
Gail Richard, past president of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association says that exposure to noise levels above 70 and 80 decibels causes hearing loss over time. And with nearly 3 million of us working in the hospitality sector in the UK, it’s a serious workplace issue.
We have solved the proplem of poor acoustics in restaurants for many venues all over the UK including The Ivy, Nopi, Dishoom, HIDE, many of Ottolenghi's restaurants and many more.
We are very proud to have been mentioned in the Evening Standard, for the superb acoustic result achieved in the beautiful restaurant NOPI by using our exceptionally smooth Oscar Elite acoustic plaster.
Read our Evening Standard review
Oscar Acoustics have been working very closely with Ottolenghi over the years, as they know the vital importance of getting their restaurant acoustics right. To date they currently have a SonaSpray acoustic spray ceiling in Ottolenghi Spitalfields, an Oscar Elite acoustic plaster ceiling in Nopi, Warwick Street, and most recently an Oscar Elite acoustic plaster ceiling in the beautiful new restaurant Rovi in Fitzrovia, London.
What to expect
We understand that each restaurant design is unique and different, which is why we tailor all of our acoustic solutions to each individual restaurant. Our service includes free acoustic appraisals and our detail drawings will allow you to see how our reverberation control finishes will help you meet your project objectives without design compromise. Acoustic models help us determine the required material depth, allowing us to fine tune the acoustics to the client’s needs; more often than not, allowing for easy conversation but retaining an atmospheric buzz.
“The results are simply awesome! It's created a totally different dining environment to what it was before. Speech and music are clear and all background clutter noise has gone. The restaurant feels comfortable and somehow warmer and cosier now.”
Comments from Black Tiles Restaurant owner Tim Yeo
(as featured on BBC Radio Four - architectural acoustics report.)
Our restaurant installations
Take a look at some of the restaurants where we have installed our acoustic spray and acoustic plaster products below. These have helped to improve the restaurant acoustics and reduce the uncomfortable noise levels for customers and staff alike.
A beautiful and elegant restaurant with simple surfaces such as tiled floors and flat walls will always be visually appealing but may not be the most pleasurable place to spend time due to poor restaurant acoustics. Our Oscar Elite exceptionally smooth acoustic plaster enables the designer to create this same visual impact but combined with a relaxing and calm ambience for its diners so that they will visit time and time again.
Ottolenghi have always taken noise control within their restaurants very seriously to ensure that their diners have the best experience possible. To date they currently have a SonaSpray acoustic spray ceiling in Ottolenghi Spitalfields, an Oscar Elite acoustic plaster ceiling in Nopi, Warwick Street and most recently an Oscar Elite acoustic plaster ceiling in the beautiful new restaurant Rovi in Fitzrovia, London.
Hide is a new 13,500 square feet, dramatic three-level, Michelin star restaurant and bar situated in Piccadilly, London. Our specialist in-house installation teams expertly applied SonaSpray fcx in two bespoke whites to feature curved ceilings on both the ground and first floors of the restaurant to create a relaxed and enjoyable dining experience for its guests.
Our Oscar Elite smooth acoustic plaster was spray applied to the ceiling in the stylish Holborn Dining room at the Rosewood Hotel, London. This synthetic acoustic plaster absorbs sound energy instead of reflecting it, reducing reverberation times and overall noise levels for perfect restaurant acoustics.
SonaSpray fcx acoustic plaster applied to ceiling in the seriously stylish Scarfes Bar in the Rosewood Hotel, Holborn to control reverberation for excellent restaurant and bar acoustics. It was then painted to create a stunning velvet effect.
Architects Macaulay Sinclair specified Oscar Acoustic's SonaSpray fcx acoustic spray plaster finish onto plasterboard at 12mm thick for the ceilings in the famous Dishoom restaurant in the heart of Kensington, London.
Reducing noise levels in restaurants - For this exquisite dining room, the restaurant and bar acoustics had to be dealt with using cutting edge acoustic plaster technology so as to not compromise any of the design brief. Martin Brudnizki Design Studio wanted to redesign Fortnum & Mason’s original Fountain Restaurant with a design that fused the glamour of contemporary London with the heritage of the truly iconic department store.
Architects Macaulay Sinclair specified Oscar Acoustic's SonaSpray fcx for the upper walls of this fantastic new Dishoom Restaurant recently opened in Manchester.
SonaSpray K-13 noise reduction spray in black applied to the soffit at the Byron Burger restaurant in Piccadilly Garden, Manchester to control reverberation and refurbish the old ceiling.
When designing Nopi, the owner Noam Bar had a clear vision: plaster smooth ceilings, painted brick and tiled walls, hard table tops and marble floors; poor restaurant acoustics were a certainty.
