FD4 - Acoustics of Pool Halls

Purpose

To establish safety guidelines for the acoustic control within pool halls. Note: This guideline only applies to pools/facilities commissioned after 1 July 1996.

Room Acousitcs Comfort and Safety

The control of sound level within pool halls can contribute to the comfort of the users, and safety aspects of activities such as lifeguard directions, emergency signals and public address (PA) announcements.

Reverberation

For a swimming pool space the most significant acoustic consideration is reverberation time. The reverberation time is dependant solely upon the shape and volume of the pool hall together with the surface finishes of the space.

The Australian Standard AS 2107 recommends that reverberation times for an indoor sports area should not exceed 2 seconds in the 500 Hz and 1KHz octaves. It is preferable to reduce the time to between 1.2 and 1.3 seconds.

Care should be exercised in the selection of the various surface finishes used to control room reverberation. Consideration should be given to water resistance, user wear and tear, maintenance and product life.

Mechanical Noise

Mechanical ventilation may cause noise in rooms due to either the aerodynamic noise made by the fan or fans, or to the transmission along the air ducts of external noises such as mechanical vibration of equipment.

Mechanical noise should be minimised.

Water Noise

One of the main sources of background noise in aquatic environments is the draining of water to the filtration system. This is especially a concern in large pools with a 'wet deck' design. Considerable reduction of this noise can be achieved by constructing the run off trough with a slope on the pool side of about 30º to the vertical. This induces the water to run smoothly into the trough rather than splashing.

The use of water sprays, fountains, waterfalls and wave machines all add to the noise created by moving water. A balance between an aesthetic environment, fun, effective supervision and moving water should be achieved.

Public Address (PA) System

The design of a public address system for an aquatic facility is important as it may forms part of an aquatic facilities supervision and emergency plan. Issues critical to the design are:

1. Output power
2. Speaker location, number and quality
3. Speaker control and isolation
4. Microphone location around building
5. Emergency override of locally attenuated speakers
6. Battery back - up
7. Location of main equipment rack
8. Operator training

References

• AS/NZS 2107 - 2000; Acoustics - Recommended design sound levels and reverberation times for building interiors.

Previous Versions

• FD19 Acoustics within Pool Halls, Issue 2 November 2007.