All you need to know about NRC ratings

Acoustics play an important role in our everyday lives.

Acoustic Solution

Acoustics play an important role in our everyday lives. Most spaces that you enter will have been engineered in a way that reduces the amount of noise and reverberated noise occupants have to deal with. To ensure that the right acoustic products are used when designing, a noise reduction coefficient (NRC) is measured and given to each product.

So, what is an NRC rating?

NRC stands for noise reduction coefficient
This is an average rating on how much sound an acoustic product can absorb
Like a sponge absorbs water, acoustic products absorb sound
An NRC rating will tell you how much sound an acoustic product can absorb

For example, if you have an NRC rating of zero, then that acoustic solution will not absorb any sound. An NRC rating of one means that the product absorbs all sound. The higher your NRC rating, the more sound that will be absorbed by that product.

How are NRC ratings calculated?

There is quite a lot of work behind each NRC rating. A simplified version of this process is:

To ensure accurate testing, a sound testing lab specifically designed for measuring sound absorption is required.
This lab is equipped with microphones and machines that emit sound frequencies at 250, 500, 1000, and 2000Hz.
The first step is to take an initial measurement by transmitting noise into the room and measuring how much sound is absorbed.
When this is done the product can then be placed in the lab with the sound absorption measured against the four previously mentioned frequencies.
The results are then gathered with the NRC rating being created by averaging the four measurements and rounding this number to the nearest 0.05.

Do your products have NRC ratings?

All of our acoustic products have a corresponding NRC rating. Some are higher than others and, therefore, are designed for spaces where acoustics are a higher priority.

What acoustic solutions do you have with high NRC ratings?

Our Quietspace® Panel and Lanes™ are those two solutions. Both solutions are high-performing, with NRC ratings of 0.80 or above. However, Lanes achieves this in an innovative way.

Lanes^™

This battened-style acoustic system is made from Cube™, allowing you to add a feature to any space. How does it achieve such a high NRC rating?

That is down to the air gap behind each lane. This space allows for enhanced low-frequency sound absorption while creating beautifully folded joins. Available in Peak, Plane, and Sawtooth styles, there is something here for every project.

Learn more about our Lanes range here.