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Acoustical design · Auditorium engineering

From fog to clarity.

DAWS designs and builds auditoriums where every word is understood, every note is experienced and every performance comes alive.

Start a project Hear the difference

01 — Approach

An auditorium is more than just a physical space; it is an environment where sound, architecture and human experience come together.

Our approach begins with understanding the challenges of an untreated space — unwanted reflections, excessive reverberation, sound distortion and poor speech intelligibility.

Through thoughtful acoustical planning, material selection, sound diffusion, absorption and precise audio system integration, we transform these challenges into a balanced acoustic environment.

02 — The untreated room

Most rooms fail in the same four ways.

Hard, parallel surfaces and an afterthought sound system turn even beautiful halls into acoustic fog. We start by diagnosing exactly which of these a room suffers from — and how badly.

  1. 01

    Unwanted reflections

    Hard surfaces throw sound back at the audience a fraction of a second late, smearing what they hear and creating echoes.

  2. 02

    Excessive reverberation

    Sound lingers long after it is made. Syllables pile on top of each other until speech turns into a wash.

  3. 03

    Sound distortion

    Room resonances boost some frequencies and swallow others, colouring every voice and instrument that plays in the space.

  4. 04

    Poor speech intelligibility

    The result: the back rows hear noise, not words. Presenters strain, audiences switch off and performances fall flat.

03 — Hear the difference

Same hall. Same sound. Different design.

Play a sound in a simulated untreated hall, then switch to the same hall after acoustic treatment. Watch the trace: in the fog every sound bleeds into the next. Headphones recommended.

Choose a room
Reverb time · RT60
3.4 s
Speech clarity · C50
−5.8 dB
Intelligibility · STI
0.41Poor

Choose a sound below to play it in the room

Simulated with synthetic impulse responses — figures are illustrative, not measurements.

04 — Anatomy of a tuned hall

Every surface has a job.

A great-sounding auditorium isn't decorated with acoustic panels after the fact. Geometry, materials and the audio system are designed together, each doing a specific job for the listener.

Long section · stage to rear wall
Long section through a tuned auditorium A stage on the left and raked seating rising to the right. Numbered markers point to ceiling reflectors, rear-wall diffusers, side-wall absorbers, the stage shell, the line-array audio system, upholstered seating and isolated air-conditioning. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

  1. Shaped overhead panels carry early reflections from the stage to the rear rows, so the last seat hears what the first seat hears.

  2. Wells of calculated depth scatter late sound evenly instead of slapping it straight back at the stage as an echo.

  3. Fabric-wrapped and timber-slat absorbers bring reverberation down to a target set by how the room will actually be used.

  4. Angled stage surfaces project sound out to the audience and help performers hear each other on stage.

  5. Line arrays and fills designed with the room, not after it — aimed, time-aligned and tuned to the seating plan.

  6. Seats chosen to absorb roughly as much sound as a seated person, so the hall sounds the same at rehearsal and at a full house.

  7. Isolated air-conditioning, acoustic doors and sealed penetrations keep traffic, machinery and the outside world out of the room.

05 — What we do

From first measurement to opening night.

One team for the science, the design and the build — accountable for how the room actually sounds.

  1. 01

    Acoustic consulting & simulation

    Site measurements, 3D acoustic modelling and clear targets for reverberation and intelligibility — before a single panel is ordered.

  2. 02

    Interior acoustic treatment

    Absorption, diffusion and reflector systems designed as architecture, in timber, fabric, plaster and metal.

  3. 03

    Sound isolation & noise control

    Wall, floor and ceiling assemblies, acoustic doors and air-conditioning noise treatment that keep the room quiet.

  4. 04

    Audio system integration

    Loudspeakers, mixing consoles, microphones and playback, specified for the room and calibrated to it.

  5. 05

    Turnkey auditorium build

    Design, fabrication, installation and handover — one team responsible from empty shell to opening night.

  6. 06

    Testing & tuning

    Post-installation measurement, system tuning and verification against the targets we set at the start.

06 — Material palette

Absorb. Diffuse. Reflect.

Acoustic performance and interior design are not a trade-off. We specify treatment that looks like it belongs to the architecture — because it does.

  • Absorption

    Timber slat panels

    Slatted timber over acoustic felt — warmth for the eye, control for the ear.

  • Broadband absorption

    Fabric-wrapped panels

    Mineral-wool cores in acoustically transparent fabric, in any colour.

  • Tuned absorption

    Perforated timber

    Perforations sized to the frequencies a room needs to lose.

  • Diffusion

    QRD diffusers

    Wells of calculated depth scatter sound evenly instead of echoing it.

  • Low-frequency control

    Bass traps

    Corner absorbers that tame boom and standing waves.

  • Seamless absorption

    Acoustic plaster

    A smooth, joint-free ceiling or wall finish that quietly absorbs.

07 — Process

A process you can measure.

Good acoustics are not guesswork. Every project starts and ends with measurement, so you know exactly what you are getting.

  1. 01

    Listen

    We visit, measure the existing room and understand how it will be used — speech, music, cinema or all three.

  2. 02

    Model

    A 3D acoustic model predicts reverberation, clarity and coverage, and sets measurable targets.

  3. 03

    Design

    Materials, geometry and the audio system are designed together with your architect and interior team.

  4. 04

    Build

    Our teams fabricate and install treatment, isolation and systems on site.

  5. 05

    Tune

    We measure again, tune the system and hand over a room that meets its targets.

08 — Spaces we shape

Rooms built for listening.

Every kind of room has its own ideal reverberation time. Speech needs a short, controlled decay; music needs room to bloom. We design to the target, then measure to prove it.

Space Primary use 00.51.01.52.02.5 s Typical RT60
AuditoriumsMulti-purpose 1.0–1.5 s
Concert hallsOrchestral music 1.8–2.2 s
Drama theatresSpoken word 0.9–1.2 s
Conference & convention hallsSpeech & AV 0.7–1.0 s
Lecture theatresTeaching 0.6–0.9 s
Houses of worshipSpeech & music 1.2–2.0 s
Home theatresCinema 0.3–0.5 s
StudiosRecording & broadcast 0.2–0.4 s

Indicative mid-frequency ranges. Final targets depend on room volume and use.

Every word understood. Every note experienced. Every performance alive.

09 — Start a project

Tell us about your space.

A new build or an existing hall that doesn't sound right — share a few details and we'll come back with how we would approach it.

  • Drawings or photos of the space
  • Seating capacity and room size
  • How it will be used — speech, music, cinema or all three
sumitbabbar@gmail.com +91 98737 20209