Air Conditioning

      Since 1994, all occupiable rooms being built in the UK require ventilation of at least 8l/s per occupant.
In a domestic or office setting, this can usually be provided by openable windows, whereas in a studio this is generally not an option, and some form of mechanical venting is required.

      Ventilation ducts by their very nature have to pass through walls or ceilings, and the isolation performance of those walls or ceilings has to be maintained by some form of crosstalk attenuator or silencer. We have appreciable experience of designing attenuation systems for a variety of duct sizes and degrees of attenuation for just this situation.

      Heat and moisture can be a big problem, particularly in control rooms, where there tends to be lots of electrical equipment, and several human bodies. Removing this heat and moisture by ventilation alone would require enormous duct sizes if airflow noise is to be kept down to acceptable limits. All but the most basic of recording setups need some form of cooling, and a wall mounted split system heat pump is often the most cost effective. For the more serious studio, a quieter system using ducted recirculation is recommended, but this is always a more costly option.

      We are not at present licensed to handle the volatile refrigerants used in heat pump systems, but would liaise with your chosen supplier, or appoint one for you. We would discuss the acoustical and usage requirements with them, to enable them to determine a specification for the system. They would then charge you separately for their services. Where the ventilation ductwork design impinges upon the room isolation or acoustics, we would specify our requirements to the suppliers for incorporation into their design, including, if necessary, detailing for the attenuators.