Noise at Work Acoustic Solutions: Protecting Employees & Operations from Industrial Noise

Noise At Work Acoustic Solutions

Protecting Employees & Operations from Industrial Noise

Protecting People & Workplaces

Delivering a safe and efficient industrial environment is critical to your organisation’s success. An unseen but crucial factor in this is ensuring you control the impact of noise on your people. Direct Acoustics range of industrial noise barriers have been specifically developed to address and reduce the impact of noise without compromising the efficiency of your operations.

Engineered to suit any structure and configuration, our barriers absorb sound energy and diffuse persistent noise ensuring you meet Noise at Work Regulations and provide a safe, comfortable environment for your team.

Available for temporary works or permanent installation we develop acoustic solutions in collaboration with your team to deliver maximum noise reduction within your space.

Case Study: Siemens Gamesa Wind Turbine Factory

In September 2025 Direct Acoustics was asked to design, manufacture and install a bespoke acoustic mitigation system at Siemens Gamesa’s assembly facility in Hull, working in collaboration with Neptunus to integrate the system within the existing Evo structure.

Within the facility, impact guns and other high-powered tools were generating continuous noise levels in excess of 100dB(A), exceeding the safe limits defined in the Noise at Work Regulations 2005. This noise was spreading across work zones, affecting adjacent areas and posing a serious risk to employee protection and production continuity.

The acoustic challenge was clear:

  • Reduce high-impulse impact tool noise within each working zone
  • Achieve at least a 15 dB reduction in transmitted noise
  • Integrate into the Neptunus structure without altering the primary frame
  • Deliver a rapid, non-intrusive installation to avoid costly downtime and ensure operations continued

Product Performance

The MAL-30 range has been specifically engineered for maximum noise reduction whilst remaining cost effective. Its composite design provides a balance of sound attenuation (blocking transmission) and sound absorption (reducing reflection), making it one of the most effective acoustic solutions available.

  • Proven acoustic performance: tested in UKAS-accredited laboratories
  • Versatility: can be configured for different structures, sizes and finishes
  • Durability: water-resistant and hard-wearing for both indoor and outdoor use
  • Ease of installation: utilises conventional Kader-fed systems for rapid deployment
  • Sustainability: manufactured to evolving carbon efficiency standards

Why Direct Acoustics?

  • Unrivalled expertise: over 15 years of applied acoustic knowledge across multiple sectors
  • Tailored solutions: designed and engineered to meet the exact needs of each client and project
  • Commitment to sustainability: focused on carbon reduction and responsible manufacturing
  • Proven results: trusted by global leaders in renewable energy, construction and events to deliver fast, effective solutions where conventional methods fail

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How Goodnestone Park Protected Its Business and Its Neighbours with the Zone Array

Harmony in the Village: How Goodnestone Park Protected Its Neighbours with the Zone Array

Severe noise complaints and strict council restrictions posed a significant challenge in the sensitive village setting.
The Direct Acoustics Zone Array System proved to be the solution they needed

The Backdrop: A Delicate Balance

Goodnestone Park is a premier heritage estate, hosting approximately 15 high-end weddings annually between March and October. However, the venue faced a significant hurdle; its location. Situated in the heart of a quiet village, due to the topography of the countryside, the estate is subject to noise travelling easily on the wind to the ears of the local community.

Their high-end events were frequently the source of “considerable” noise complaints. With a business model dependent on securing council permission for a specific number of events each year, Goodnestone Park was at a crossroads. They needed to provide the 12:00 AM party finish that couples demand, without risking their relationship with the village or their planning permissions.

 

The Bespoke Bohemia Canvas: The Challenge. ofmarrying Architecture with Aesthetics

One of the venue’s primary event spaces is a beautiful customised version of the “mini orangery” range developed by Bohemia Canvas, a company with 25 years of experience in semi-permanent installations and a history of collaboration with Direct Acoustics. Constructed from glue laminate hard wood and steel, the system is designed to provide robust, long-standing temporary structures with various styles to suit the venue. The wooden frame is durable, standing up for long periods and offering many fixing points for securely hanging hardware.

Bohemia Canvas’s main concept is to provide temporary structures that translate the architectural style of a main building, considering aesthetics as equally important as practicality. Popular at stately homes and heritage sites, the tents are designed to complement their surroundings rather than “hinder them as some standard marquees can be a ‘blot’ on the land”. By working with the venue and its team, they ensure the structure is an aesthetic addition to the ground, which is crucial for preventing local people from objecting to the appearance.

Acoustic Environment:

The issue of sound containment is a significant consideration for the designers, particularly when dealing with rural neighbours. Unlike a solid structure, the canvas and open nature of the tent creates a challenging acoustic environment where typical sound reflection and absorption principles do not apply. This necessitated precise directional control to keep sound focused within the tent area and prevent spillover. 

This issue of noise is either already raised by the time they start a project or something they recommend addressing, especially for new venues without experience with temporary structures. For the Goodnestone project, the Zone Array system was a requirement from the beginning, underscoring their consciousness of sound and community relations.

Structural Integration:

The non-permanent nature of the tent structure required a mounting solution that was both secure for the Zone Array technology and entirely non-intrusive to the canvas or pole design. The system had to seamlessly integrate to work above the dance floor, without compromising the aesthetic charm or structural integrity of the ‘bohemian’ feel.

Aesthetic Preservation:

A key component of the tent’s appeal is its visual atmosphere. The sound solution needed to be discreet, ensuring that the technology complemented, rather than distracted from, the unique design. One of Bohemia Canvas’s unique charm is their hand-printed customised linings and trims, where in this case the design continuity is maintained with chinoise, which mirrored the wallpaper from inside the historic building of Goodnestone Park.

“In our 25 years of semi-permanent installations, we have found that sound is consistently the missing piece of the puzzle for venues doing events. The combination of our bespoke structures and Direct Acoustics’s products are a great solution, enabling us to meet the critical balance of aesthetics and acoustic practicality.”
John Preston
Director at Bohemia Canvas

The Result: Silence (Where It Matters)

Since the installation, the change in the venue’s relationship with the local council and residents has had a significant difference.

  • Zero Noise Complaints: From a complaints point of view, the issues have vanished. The Zone Array contains the sound energy within the dancefloor, preventing the “drift” that previously led to village-wide disturbances.
  • Business Security: By mitigating noise issues, the venue can confidently secure the weddings needed for a successful season.
  • Extended Celebration: Couples can now enjoy high-energy DJ sets until midnight, knowing the sound is controlled and contained.
“We have received excellent service from your team. The speaker system is invaluable, doing an amazing job of reducing sound levels across the estate and ensuring we avoid complaints from the local village.”
The Wedding Dolls
Wedding Co-ordinators at Goodnestone Park

The Takeaway: Beyond an Audio Solution

For Goodnestone Park, the Direct Acoustics Zone Array is more than just a sound system; it is a critical investment that secured the venue’s future and repaired vital community relationships.

The system acts as a true insurance policy for their business model:

  • Business Security: By definitively solving the issue of “considerable” noise complaints, the Zone Array neutralised the significant threat posed to their planning permissions, allowing them to confidently secure the 15 high-end weddings required for a successful season.

  • Community Harmony: The installation has served as a bridge to a better relationship with local residents and the village council. Noise issues have “effectively disappeared” from a complaints perspective, transforming a source of conflict into a peaceful co-existence.
  • Customer Experience: Critically, the controlled sound containment allows Goodnestone Park to offer a high-value service, high-energy DJ sets until midnight, meeting modern couples’ demands without risk.

In short, the Zone Array provided the venue with an unparalleled level of precision control, proving to be an essential tool for any unique or historic venue operating under strict noise constraints.

"Operating a wedding venue in a quiet village is a constant balancing act between giving our couples the party they want and respecting the community that surrounds us. Before we found Direct Acoustics, the noise complaints were a significant threat to our operations. We chose the Zone Array because there is quite simply nothing else on the market that offers this level of control. It’s been a game-changer; from a complaints perspective, the issues have effectively disappeared. It allows us to keep the music going until midnight and gives us the peace of mind we need for our wedding licenses. It’s an essential tool for any venue facing strict noise constraints."
Tess Plumptre
Client Services Manager, Goodnestone Park

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Pavilion Club Fulham

Invisible Sound, Immaculate Design at Pavilion's Fulham Club

How Direct Acoustics delivered high-end distributed audio at Pavilion Group’s latest London Club House.

Fulham Club House forms part of the Pavilion Group’s growing portfolio of design-led, members-only venues and workspaces. With a focus on understated luxury and world-class hospitality, it  was designed to deliver a refined and immersive atmosphere. But achieving that balance posed a particular challenge: how do you deliver premium sound, without a single speaker in sight?

The Challenge: Acoustic Excellence with Complete Discretion

From the beginning, the vision for Fulham was one of seamless integration. Every detail, from lighting to furniture had been chosen to blend into an environment of elegance. Any visible technology risked undermining that aesthetic. 

Read more about the Interior Design here 

At the same time, Pavilion Group needed a sound system capable of supporting a range of functions: from ambient lounge audio to powerful evening music, hosting a full schedule of DJ’s throughout their calendar. And all of this had to meet stringent requirements for licensing approval, ensuring the venue could operate without delay or compromise.

The Solution: Hidden Audio, Fully Licensed

Direct Acoustics worked closely with Pavilion’s project team and interior designers to deliver an audio strategy that blended completely into the architecture. High-end speakers were discreetly installed within wall and ceiling cavities throughout the bar and lounge areas, then finished with custom perforated wallpaper to ensure the sound passed cleanly through, while remaining visually hidden.

At the heart of the system, we installed a Symetrix Prism DSP. This gave the team full control over how audio was distributed throughout the space, allowing different areas of the venue to be zoned and adjusted in real time, depending on the time of day or type of event. Sound levels could be tailored subtly, louder in the bar during evening service, softer in the lounge during quiet afternoons fully operational via wireless handheld tablets. 

Equally important was the venue’s ability to satisfy all licensing conditions. Our involvement in the design and calibration of the system, as well as gathering pertinent acoustic data,  ensured that Fulham Club met those standards from the outset, giving the Pavilion Group peace of mind and allowing the venue to open without administrative delay.

Subtle Tech, Lasting Impact

The result is a venue that sounds as impressive as it looks. Guests enjoy a top tier audio experience, whilst being completely unaware of the hardware. There are no visible speakers, no exposed wiring, just clean, consistent sound that enhances the environment without drawing attention to itself.

From a business perspective, the project delivered exactly what was needed: an elegant, compliant, fully controllable system that’s as refined as the venue itself. Fulham Club now stands as a blueprint for what’s possible when design and acoustics work in harmony.

At Direct Acoustics, this is where we thrive, making sound work beautifully in unique and challenging spaces.

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Virginia Park Lodge Case Study

Direct Acoustics collaborated with Tilgate Park, a council-owned recreational park located in West Sussex, to develop a sustainable acoustic mitigation solution that would help them obtain planning permission for a permanent marquee. The goal was to meet the high demand for weddings at the park while addressing the challenge of controlling sound levels for nearby residents living just 200m away.

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Tilgate Park Case Study

Direct Acoustics collaborated with Tilgate Park, a council-owned recreational park located in West Sussex, to develop a sustainable acoustic mitigation solution that would help them obtain planning permission for a permanent marquee. The goal was to meet the high demand for weddings at the park while addressing the challenge of controlling sound levels for nearby residents living just 200m away.

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Ibiza Party Tipi

This summer, the team headed to Ibiza to install our Zone Array directional speaker system for a party tipi in a residential villa.

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The Ferry House

The Ferry House

Demonstration to installation

On the Isle of Sheppey resides the gorgeous Ferry House, a 16th-century venue that has been lovingly restored to preserve its heritage and country character. Ferry House offers a rustic oak barn and a waterside oak gazebo with a perfect panorama overlooking the private gardens and sea estuary, as well as a stunning events suite.

Demonstration

Here at Direct Acoustics, we were delighted to have the pleasure of proposing a sustainable acoustic mitigation solution fitting the events marquee with our most advanced flagship technologies to significantly reduce the breakout of amplified music whilst still maintaining high-quality audio.

To prove concept, and ensure the acoustic impact at the residential dwelling positioned 186m away was significantly reduced, whilst also improving upon disturbance generated within the Ferry House’s hotel rooms which are in very close proximity to the events marquee, Direct Acoustics undertook a demonstration of our 64x panel Zone Array directional speaker system.

This cold winter’s demo proved the Zone Array could meet pertinent acoustic criteria in the quietest conditions at the nearest receptor, but to see a significant improvement inside the venue’s hotel rooms just 30m away, an additional mass barrier would be required in the form of our MAL22 acoustic lining.

Challenge

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The Ferry House hosts over 70 events per year in the quiet & flat landscape of the Isle of Sheppey

Solution

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A MAL22 acoustic lining enclosure and 64x panel Zone Array dedicated to containing both amplified and non amplified noise sources to a dedicated area.

Results

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Hosting back to back weddings whilst vastly reducing the acoustic impact on not just the neighbours but also on the venues own hotel rooms a matter of metres away.

Our MAL22 lining has a broad spectrum reduction rating of 22dB Rw, which is a huge reduction considering a 20dB noise reduction would reduce the perceived noise by level 75%.

Installation

March 2022 saw Direct Acoustics begin our installation at The Ferry House, initially installing our MAL22 acoustic lining into the walls, roof and gable-end of the venue’s HTS TENTIQ clearspan marquee creating a dancefloor enclosure with a single open-fronted end.

The purpose of the enclosure is to deflect and contain noise generated from reaching both receptors positioned behind the dancefloor but will still allow guests, situated in the marquee to walk in and out of the enclosure freely.


To gain additional control of amplified music, our Zone Array system was implemented inside this acoustic enclosure along with a Symetrix Prism Process Limiter. Every unique solution we provide ensures control takes priority and disturbance at nearby residential dwellings becomes a non-issue. Whilst the Zone Array localises low frequency onto the dancefloor, our installed limiters manipulate every frequency and volume level emitted through each individual speaker to ensure the system does not cause complaints.

Perfect for venue-operators looking to take back control and grow their business with more frequent late-night events, whilst leaving the environment and neighbours in peace.

Did you know?

Aesthetically our Zone Array system can be invisible to guests, its slim 70mm thickness means it can be installed and hidden behind the lining of the events marquee, allowing the venue to keep control of its curated aesthetic.

How well does the Zone Array & MAL22 work?
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Dancefloor Level
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