Our first step was to physically take measurements from the room. Attention was paid to obtaining the areas of each facet and material. We then estimated the absorption coefficients of the existing materials in the room.

Looking at the chart to the right we can see that a room with a volume of 22,720 cubic feet should have a reverberation time of approximately 0.8 seconds (at 500 Hz) for good speech intelligibility.

Based on the fact above, we calculated the existing reverberation times for the room to determine whether they correspond to the design goal for a room of this proportion of volume. Looking at those results we also calculated theoretical results with alternative materials. Besides calculating with alternative materials, we analyzed the reflections from the existing ceiling configuration, and developed a suggestion for improving the ceiling reflections.
To practically prove whether putting alternative materials on the wall improves the acoustic quality in the room, we experimented with subjectively testing the acoustical environment with different surface finishes such as velour curtains. (See survey for detail)