Sto acoustic system proves beneficial for auditorium

An integrated acoustic solution from Sto has been used to create a balanced acoustic environment for a major Scottish medical training establishment.

The StoSilent Distance system has been installed in the main auditorium space at the world-famous Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

The college provides specialist education, training and examination services for the medical profession, and the Physicians International Conference Centre auditorium plays a key role in these activities.

“As the auditorium is used for all types of presentations and events, speech intelligibility within the auditorium is obviously of paramount importance,” says Neil Greenshields of LDN Architects. “Our aim was to reduce the auditorium’s reverberation times, increase speech intelligibility and to work to the 0.9 second remit.

"The StoSilent Distance system provided an excellent way to achieve the required acoustics and aesthetics within the space.”

The StoSilent Distance system incorporates a metal profile sub-construction, onto which the recycled, expanded glass granulate acoustic boards are fitted. This lightweight, monolithic system can be used to create clean, seamless and uncluttered ceiling solutions. Where ceiling voids are being used to accommodate services behind the system, it can be adjusted to suit the requirements, as in this case, and to achieve a certain aesthetic and shape to suit the space, creating a modern, clean, homogeneous, seamless appearance.

“The curved design of the auditorium posed certain challenges, in that there were a number of structural elements which effectively cut across the curves,” adds John Russell of Roskel Contracts Ltd, a Sto authorized applicator who installed the acoustic system.

“Fortunately, the StoSilent Distance system includes a versatile suspension system to which the acoustic boards are installed. Together with the fact that the boards are lightweight, easy to cut and form on-site, this gave us the flexibility we needed to create the design of the individual hemispheres and help create the clean, seamless surfaces that were required.”

The benefit of the StoSilent Distance system to the end-user and on-site building management team is that it can be maintained and effectively repaired throughout the lifetime of the auditorium, to maintain its clean, monolithic appearance well into the future. Sto’s specially-formulated

StoSilent Décor M acoustic plaster was used to finish the acoustic system. This spray-applied finish features a minimal granular aesthetic which has a high degree of light resolution, and this helped create a visually attractive finish for the auditorium.

StoSilent Décor M can be tinted to match both RAL colours, subject to confirmation,

and a wide range of shades from the StoColor system.