Client
LUOHE Sports
Location
Shanghai, China
Rucker Park Shanghai is quickly becoming the go-to destination for Shanghai’s basketball and mini-golf enthusiasts.
This high-end 1,800sqm indoor sports arena offers a unique leisure experience, complete with great food and drink, mini-golf, darts, PS5, billiard and top-of-the-line basketball courts.
Discover in this case study how our acoustic engineers collaborated with LUOHE Sports and Design OVERLAY Architects, to create a top-notch space with a great sound atmosphere, design and a unique experience.
The Challenge: When Sound Privacy and Speech Intelligibility become Intertwined
With each area creating varying noise levels, it was crucial for LUOHE Sports, the company behind this project, to deliver a tailor-made sound atmosphere to their customers. With elevated noise levels being a common issue in indoor sports arenas, a proper approach to noise control was necessary.
Imagine sitting at the bar trying to have a conversation with your friends while a basketball game is going on behind you, two different songs are playing in the background, a birthday party on your right, and a group of friends playing minigolf and darts on your left. Pretty overwhelming right?
Sip, share, and connect at Rucker Park’s bar area!
As you can see, noise not only affects the comfort of the customers but also has a direct impact on the quality of the experience, the quality of conversations and the time people spend at the venue.
Acoustically, Rucker Park is unique in the way that there are no partitions to separate different types of areas, which automatically links reverberation and sound privacy issues. Traditionally, sound privacy would be addressed with the use of proper partitions and separations of areas. However, since each space is directly accessible, sound privacy had to be tackled through the art of noise propagation and reverberation control. This is where controlling echo times in different spaces directly impacted not only the speech intelligibility and music clarity of areas, but also the sound privacy between areas.
An acoustically treated private golf simulator room, ideal to practice your swing.
Our Acoustic Engineers’ Mission
Rucker Park team knew from the beginning that incorporating acoustic consultants into the design stage was essential and we were ready to take on this unique challenge!
Our mission was clear but far from simple: deliver a sound ambience ideal for each area and activity, while reducing noise propagation between spaces: without using partitions.
Three adjacent areas with no partitions: the basketball court, F&B space and TV watching area.
By carrying out on-site noise measurements and calculations with the right tools, our acoustic engineers were able to define the solutions necessary to create the right ambiance and sound levels for each space.
By combining various ceiling and wall treatments, we were able to incorporate acoustic solutions in the interior design finishes. One example would be the flocking spray in the ceiling of the public area, combined with acoustic wall panels, resulting in a space with a great sound atmosphere. The absorbing treatments hidden within the interior finishes played a double role: to control reverberation times in each while reducing noise propagation to other areas.
Rucker Park’s futuristic basketball court. Are you ready to ball?
The Results: Invisible Acoustic Comfort for a True Differentiation
In the end, we were able to optimize the overall acoustics in all the club’s gathering areas. By working closely with the project team from an early stage, we managed to blend the acoustic solutions into the design intentions, ensuring that the final outcome was a visually interactive space with a great sound atmosphere.
We are so proud to say the client was very happy with their experience, and to have contributed to the success of this unique project!
