Acoustic luminaires from Thorn are top of the class for noise levels, light quality and energy efficiency

A secondary school in the Austrian town of Anger has given Thorn’s Arena Symphony top marks for lighting in education after a pilot project with the sound-absorbing acoustic LED luminaire helped significantly reduce noise levels. Increased illumination has also led to improved lighting quality, while using high-efficiency LEDs to slash energy consumption by almost 50 per cent means everyone can benefit from the new installation - including those in charge of the finances.

The result

The LED luminaires have saved 45 per cent energy and delivered an even lighting level of 300 lux in the refurbished rooms of the school in Anger. Measurements taken by an acoustics company before and after the new Thorn installation demonstrate the full extent of the improvement. These checks showed that the reverberation time, which is how long a sound takes to drop 60 decibels, has been cut by half.

The Arena Symphony suspended fitting combines LED modules and sound-absorbing material inserts. Clients can also specify blank modules made from the acoustic material in the same design, helping this versatile system to meet the technical lighting and acoustic requirements of any space.

The Challenge

High noise levels are often seen as just another difficult factor that teachers and students have to deal with. Modern concrete walls, hard flooring and large amounts of glass all reflect (rather than absorb) sound. The echo effect created in this way can make it difficult to hear the teacher speak, causing students to raise the noise level even further by chatting amongst themselves.

Schools in Europe should in theory comply with country-specific norms developed in the 1990s, but many old and new buildings with hard acoustic surfaces generally fall short of these standards. The architectural trend towards fair-faced concrete, higher ceilings and glass surfaces to let in more daylight has often only served to make this problem even worse.

Now sound-absorbing Arena Symphony LED luminaires have been shown to improve acoustics and therefore play an active role in supporting effective teaching and boosting learning success.

The solution

A classroom and corridor area have been fitted with acoustic luminaires from Thorn as part of a pilot project in the Neue Mittelschule (New Middle School) in the Austrian town of Anger. The room heights in the concrete building from the 1960s were too low for a suspended-ceiling solution, so Arena Symphony LED was chosen to replace the existing surface-mounted compact fluorescent louvre luminaires. The suspended sound-absorbing luminaires, which feature both direct and indirect lighting, have also made a great visual impact by creating a modern image and generating a completely new atmosphere in the classroom.

Head teacher Karin Strassegger sees the specification of Thorn Arena Symphony luminaires as a major step forward for everyone involved, with an overwhelmingly positive response from both teachers and students. The local education authority for the Austrian county of Styria has also declared the pilot project a success.