Multiple meetings in the same space

[Ailime11]

How have you solved the problem of having two different meetings in the same space? We have a space issue, and we must have two different meetings in the same relatively small space at the same time, and the problem is that it creates a lot of noise. Some people have difficulty concentrating when they can hear the meeting next door.

Any solutions for this?

[russellhltn]

When I toured our stake center after a renovation, I found out that the two Won doors in the same room had different soundproof ratings. I'm not sure if it was because they were different models, or if they were installed in different decades. But it might be something for the agent bishop or stake president to discuss with FM.

[Ailime11]

Alright, thank you.

I tried googling quick solutions, but the only ones I found are these "audio spaces", where you would kind of create two different sound rooms in one physical room with these ceiling speakers, if i understood the idea correctly. I will keep looking and see if I can find other solutions.

[Wattsuk]

Are you already using Acoustic room divider partitions?

Many stake centres had them here in the 80's and 90's but I believe they were all withdrawn due to the health and safety aspect of being at risk of tipping onto a child.

Worth a conversation with your FM.

[Ailime11]

Hi,

Sorry for not replying earlier. We had a contractor, who suggested we use directional audio solutions. Those are now installed and we are testing it out, and so far it seems that it is working quite well. So far we only have one speaker, and we keep on testing in different meetings with people who have different needs.

[russellhltn]

We had a contractor, who suggested we use directional audio solutions. Those are now installed and we are testing it out, and so far it seems that it is working quite well.

I'm sure I'm not the only one curious about the solution.

Is this something that had to be professionally installed into the building, or is it something portable?

[Ailime11]

It was professionally installed into the building because we don’t have enough audio knowledge to do it ourselves. But I would imagine if you have a little bit of knowledge about different amplifiers and speaker systems, it would be possible to install yourself. We used Panphonics directional speakers (https://panphonics.com/products/#compact) as we had a chance to go see them at the contractors show room, and they were convincing enough that we bought a demo speaker, which worked well for our situation. I had no previous knowledge of these type of speakers and it was quite interesting to go experience it. The speaker was mounted to the ceiling, and the installer was of great help on how to best install it.

The initial problem was that we had to have 2-4 meetings in the same hall, and due to echo and other factors, it was difficult to concentrate. The speakers have resolved this problem, and now we are testing whether speech-to-text programs work better with these speakers. Previously, the speech-to-text programs have not worked very well as they don’t pick up every word of the speech. We have promising results for this with the directional speakers, as the speech is very clear from the speakers. The only problem we have is that they are quite pricey (around 600 dollars per speaker), but we will be looking into how many we need and see how much the whole thing is going to cost.

[russellhltn]

Very interesting. Of course, FM has to be involved, but it shows what's possible.

One concern I'd have is that the class groupings will likely change over time such that the speakers have to be re-installed to meet the new need.

[sbradshaw]

Related thread: Sound solutions for classes in cultural halls

[munaish]

Which meetings? Are they meetings from the same ward?

The answer could vary a lot depending on the kinds of meetings.