Swimming Pool Acoustics
Improve speech and PA clarity in reverberant pool halls
Consultant-designed acoustic treatment that controls reflections from extensive hard surfaces, making instructions and announcements easier to understand.
Leisure Pools | School Pools | Training Pools | Changing Areas
What Songbird acoustic panels do in a swimming pool
Swimming pool acoustic panels are moisture and corrosion resistant sound-absorbing panels that bring a pool hall down from the extreme reverberation a fully hard, fully wet room produces. An untreated indoor pool commonly measures between 5 and 10 seconds, the longest of any building type, because every surface reflects: tiles, glass, exposed structure and the water itself. That is a supervision problem before it is a comfort one, because lifeguards work by whistle and voice. Products, fixings and suspension components must be selected for the pool hall’s humidity, temperature and corrosive environment. Suitability should be confirmed from the relevant product and fixing-system documentation.
What better acoustics can achieve in swimming pools
Reduced Echo and Reverberation
Acoustic panels absorb sound reflections caused by hard surfaces like water and tiles, ensuring a quieter, more pleasant atmosphere.
Improved Communication
Clearer acoustics make it easier for lifeguards, instructors, and swimmers to hear instructions, announcements, and safety signals.
Support for Clearer Safety Communication
Controlling reverberation supports the clarity of announcements and instructions, alongside appropriately designed safety and PA systems.
Comfortable Environment
Balanced sound levels create a more enjoyable space for swimmers, spectators, and staff, reducing the overwhelming noise often found in busy pool areas.
More Usable Teaching Spaces
A project-specific treatment scheme helps swimming lessons and activities sound clearer across the pool hall.
A Coordinated Interior
Panels and suspension systems must be selected for the pool atmosphere, with appearance coordinated around safe fixing locations and maintenance access.
Take a look at our projects
Sports Hall
Impact resistant acoustic panels for five sports halls
education
Education
What our clients say about us
Design, supply and install of acoustic panels for a mixed-use community hall.
“I just wanted to say thank you for everything you have done in terms of the acoustics at Kirkgate Community Centre, also Andy and his team were amazing. The place looks amazing.”
Nicole Williams – Kirkgate Community Centre
Supply and install acoustic panels for 5 Sports Halls.
“Thank you for the works provided over the summer period. It has been a seamless project and the new panels look great. “
Lauren Cassidy – Galliford Try
Design, supply and install acoustic panels for a multi-use school hall.
“We are very happy with the work and the difference is very noticeable.“
Anna Ellison – Weetwood School
Our Service from Start to Finish
Tell us about your space
Send us your floor plan or dimensions, photographs and a short video, and explain the acoustic problem.
Acoustic consultant review
Our acoustic consultants assess the layout, finishes and use of the space to determine what treatment is needed.
Treatment design & quotation
We recommend the right panels, quantities and locations, with a clear layout and quotation.
Supply and installation
Choose supply-only or nationwide installation, scheduled around your working hours where required.
Why choose Songbird for swimming pools?
Consultant-led, not guesswork
We calculate the appropriate panel type, quantity and layout for your space.
Designed around your interior
Panels, rafts and baffles coordinated with your lighting, furniture and branding.
Supply-only or nationwide installation
Choose the service you need, with installation planned around working hours.
Clear, honest advice
We explain what acoustic panels will solve—and when source control, layout changes or sound insulation are also needed.
Ready for a better-sounding space?
Send us your room details and an acoustic consultant will recommend the appropriate panels, quantity and layout—with no obligation. Prefer to talk? Call 0113 322 7977 for expert advice.
Why swimming pools are the hardest rooms to treat, and what happens if you do not
An untreated indoor pool hall commonly measures a reverberation time of 5 to 10 seconds. Nothing else in a normal building comes close. A sports hall runs around 6 seconds; a boardroom around 1. The reason is that a pool hall is the only room type where every single surface is chosen to be hard, non-absorbent and washable, and the largest surface of all is water.
| Surface | Why it is hard | Can it be softened? |
|---|---|---|
| The water | Reflective, and unavoidable | No |
| Tiled floor and pool surround | Hygiene, slip resistance, cleaning regime | No |
| Tiled or rendered walls | Moisture and chlorine resistance | Only above splash zones, with the right specification |
| Glazing | Daylight, views, supervision sightlines | No |
| Exposed roof structure | Ventilation, condensation management, maintenance access | This is where the treatment goes |
Why this is a supervision issue rather than a comfort one. Lifeguards work by whistle signal and by voice, to each other and to swimmers. In a 7-second room, a whistle blast and its reflections arrive as one continuous sound, so the direction it came from becomes hard to place and a second signal overlaps the first. Verbal instruction across a pool becomes shouting. Public address announcements and alarm signals lose intelligibility for the same reason, and adding amplifier power makes it worse, because the reverberation gets amplified alongside the speech.
Swimming lessons are affected in the same way, at the worst possible age. Children need a better speech-to-noise ratio than adults to understand instruction, and a pool hall gives them the worst ratio in the building.
What a treated pool hall should aim for. Around 2 seconds is a workable design target for a pool hall, and getting below roughly 1.6 seconds is rarely achievable or necessary. This is design practice rather than a published limit; where a project is following Sport England’s swimming pool design guidance, check its acoustics appendix for the current recommended figure.
| Pool hall | Size | Volume | Untreated RT60 | Absorption for 2.0 s | For 1.6 s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Learner or small pool | 20 × 12 × 5 m | 1,200 m³ | ~4.8 s | ~67 m² | ~95 m² |
| 25 m, 4 lane | 30 × 12 × 6 m | 2,160 m³ | ~5.7 s | ~133 m² | ~184 m² |
| 25 m, 6 lane | 33 × 17 × 7 m | 3,927 m³ | ~6.9 s | ~265 m² | ~358 m² |
| Leisure pool | 40 × 25 × 8 m | 8,000 m³ | ~8.5 s | ~579 m² | ~768 m² |
Figures assume fully hard wet finishes throughout with the hall unoccupied, using the Sabine method with Class A absorption. Sabine over-predicts in large rooms carrying heavy absorption, so treat the larger halls as an upper bound and model them properly. Pool halls should be modelled rather than estimated in any case, because roof geometry and glazing vary enormously.
The specification, which matters more here than in any other space. A pool hall is warm, saturated and chemically aggressive, and a failed panel or fixing falls into or beside water where people are swimming. Three requirements to write into any specification:
Moisture stability. Panels need to hold dimensional stability at high humidity. Ecophon, for example, specifies performance at 95 percent relative humidity at 30 °C without dimensional change, which is a reasonable benchmark to ask a supplier to meet.
Corrosion class for fixings and any suspension system. Pool halls are corrosive environments.The complete system—including core, facing, frame, fixings and suspension components—must be specified for the pool hall’s humidity, chlorinated atmosphere and corrosion risk. The required corrosion category should be confirmed by the product manufacturer and project specifier.
Absorption class. Class A, αw ≥ 0.90, or NRC 0.85 to 1.0. In a room starting at 7 seconds there is no case for anything lower.
Where it goes. The ceiling and roof zone, effectively wall to wall. Partial ceiling treatment is the usual approach in most building types and it is not enough here, because the ceiling is close to the only surface available. Upper wall bands above splash and contact height can be added where the specification allows. Everything at or near water level stays hard, because it has to.
Four things to consider for swimming pools
Confirm moisture suitability
Use product evidence for the actual humidity, temperature and chemical environment.
Engineer the fixings
Suspension and fixings must be appropriate for a pool atmosphere and safely designed.
Protect supervision and access
Coordinate treatment with sightlines, services, cleaning and maintenance.
Model the whole pool hall
Roof geometry, water, glazing and limited treatment locations require a project-specific design.
Frequently Asked Questions
Only if specified for it. Standard fabric-wrapped and polyester panels are not suitable in a pool hall. The specification needs a core that holds dimensional stability at high humidity, a facing that tolerates chlorine, and fixings and suspension rated for a corrosive environment, ISO 12944 class C4 for pool areas. The failure mode is a panel or fixing coming down beside water, so this is not a detail to leave open.
Commonly between 5 and 10 seconds, which is the longest of any normal building type. Every surface in a pool hall is chosen to be hard, non-absorbent and washable, and the largest surface of all is the water. For comparison, a sports hall runs around 6 seconds and a meeting room around 1.
Around 2 seconds is a workable target for most pool halls, and going much below 1.6 seconds is rarely achievable or necessary. This is design practice rather than a published limit. Where a project follows Sport England’s swimming pool design guidance, check its acoustics appendix for the figure that applies to the scheme.
They improve the conditions supervision depends on. Lifeguards work by whistle and voice, and in a 7-second room a whistle and its reflections arrive as one continuous sound, which makes the direction hard to place and lets a second signal overlap the first. Reducing reverberation makes signals, verbal instruction and announcements clearer. It is a supervision improvement, not a substitute for supervision.
Considerably. Children need a better speech-to-noise ratio than adults to follow instruction, and a pool hall gives them the worst ratio in the building. Instructors in untreated pools raise their voices for every lesson, every day, which is a workload issue as well as a teaching one. This is often the change staff notice first.
A 25 metre four-lane pool hall of around 30 by 12 metres needs roughly 133 m² of Class A absorption to reach 2 seconds. A leisure pool of 40 by 25 metres needs closer to 580 m². Pool halls should be modelled rather than estimated from floor area, because roof geometry and glazing vary far more than in other building types.
The ceiling and roof zone, effectively wall to wall. In most building types partial ceiling coverage is enough, but in a pool hall the ceiling is close to the only available surface, so it carries almost all of the absorption. Upper wall bands above splash and contact height can be added where the specification allows. Everything at water level stays hard.
Yes, and this is where reverberation does most damage. In a long-reverberation room each word of an announcement is still arriving as the next is spoken, so adding amplifier power raises the reverberation alongside the speech and intelligibility gets worse rather than better. Absorption shortens the decay so consecutive words stop overlapping.
No. Panels absorb sound inside the pool hall and do nothing about sound passing through walls, doors or floors. That is sound insulation, and in leisure centres the usual weak points are the doors between the pool hall and adjoining spaces. NOVA Acoustics carries out UKAS-accredited sound insulation testing to identify the actual path before anything is specified.
Usually yes, for the ceiling works. High-level installation over a pool needs access equipment and, depending on the scheme, sometimes a drained or covered pool, so it is normally scheduled into a planned maintenance shutdown. Wall treatment at accessible levels can often be phased separately. Most operators combine it with a scheduled closedown rather than creating one.
Shop the Songbird Acoustic Panel Range
Already know what you need? Explore our high-performance panels for direct UK delivery. If not, our acoustic consultants can recommend the right product, quantity and layout.
Sustainable, high performance acoustic treatment
Sustainable 40mm Polyester Fibre Acoustic Panel with Class A Sound Absorption made with >60% Recycled Material. Suitable for walls, ceilings, rafts or baffles.
Premium finishes and design-led interiors.
Simple, cost-effective self-installation.
40mm Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panel with Class A Sound Absorption. Self-adhesive for easy DIY Installation. Suitable for surface mounting to walls or ceilings.
Durable protection for high-impact areas.
