Case studies

The brief, the constraint, the fix.

Each of these is an illustrative worked example — a realistic brief run through Echo using the same method a real report uses — not an account of a named past client. Real, permissioned projects will join these as they come in.

Education · Featured

A Victorian classroom, modelled against the BB93 limit

A worked example: a Victorian primary classroom well over BB93's 0.8-second refurbishment limit, treated without touching the cornicing. Standard, method, and every route, vendor-neutral.

BB93 — Acoustic Design of Schools8 × 6.5 × 3.6 m

Read the full worked example

Open-plan floor, converted warehouse building

Workplace

Sizing a fix for the acoustic gap before a WELL assessment

A worked example: an exposed-brick, exposed-services fintech office short of WELL v2's 0.5-second open-workspace target, fixed without hiding the services. Standard, method, and every route.

WELL v2 — Reverberation Time featureRead it

Hospitality

A period lobby and bar, without touching the fabric

A worked example: an independent hotel's stone-and-marble lobby and bar, reflective enough that review sites had started to notice, fixed within listed-building constraints.

No statutory target — guest-experience briefRead it

Community & Worship

A chapel hall, fixed without hired access equipment

A worked example: a Methodist chapel hall run by volunteers, fixed within a budget that ruled out scaffolding or a contractor lift. Standard, method, and every route, vendor-neutral.

No statutory target — speech-led hall briefRead it

Hospitality

An open-kitchen restaurant, without losing the open kitchen

A worked example: an independently-owned small-plates restaurant with five-star food reviews and consistent noise complaints, fixed without enclosing the open kitchen pass. Vendor-neutral.

No statutory target — guest-comfort briefRead it

Secondary school sports hall, four courts

Education & Leisure · Featured

A sports hall that has to do three different jobs

A worked example: a secondary school sports hall too reverberant for PE instruction and whole-school assembly, fixed on a council capital budget without deadening it for evening five-a-side.

BB93 — Acoustic Design of Schools (school sports halls), with Sport England guidance for community use36 × 20 × 8 m

Read the full worked example

Healthcare

A GP waiting room, modelled for less reverberation and better reception privacy

A worked example: a GP surgery waiting room where reception conversations carried across the room, fixed within strict infection-control limits on soft furnishings. Vendor-neutral, indicative.

HTM 08-01 — Acoustics (NHS Health Technical Memorandum)Read it

Retail

A boutique treated without visible acoustic panels

A worked example: an independent fashion boutique where staff couldn't hear customers over a hard-surfaced shop floor, fixed without a single visible acoustic panel on the sales floor.

No statutory target — customer-experience briefRead it

Co-working floor, converted warehouse building

Workplace

A co-working floor, fixed within a dilapidations clause

A worked example: a co-working operator's exposed-brick floor, too reverberant for its members' calls, fixed entirely with removable furniture because the head lease required a bare-shell return.

No statutory target — member-experience briefRead it

Community & Worship

A meeting house built for silence, hired out for speech

A worked example: a Quaker meeting house where the unprogrammed worship needs almost nothing acoustically, but the weekday community-hire income depends on speech actually working. Standard, method, and every route, vendor-neutral.

No statutory target — dual-use briefRead it

Education · Featured

A seminar room nobody wanted to book

A worked example: a university seminar room with a glass wall and a hard floor, quietly avoided by staff running discussion-based teaching. Standard, method, and every route, vendor-neutral.

BB93 — Acoustic Design of Schools (applied by analogy; not formally in scope for HE)7.5 × 6 × 3 m

Read the full worked example

Studio floor, single storey warehouse unit

Education & Leisure

A fitness studio fixed without losing the music

A worked example: a boutique spin studio in a converted warehouse unit, where instructor cueing was getting lost under the room's own sound system. Standard, method, and every route, vendor-neutral.

No single mandated figure — Sport England guidance used as referenceRead it

Healthcare

A dental reception, modelled for two different problems at once

A worked example: a private dental practice reception where card-payment conversations and treatment-plan discussions carried the length of a small waiting room. Standard, method, and every route, vendor-neutral.

HTM 08-01 — Acoustics (used as best-practice reference for a private practice)Read it

Retail

A bookshop that wanted quiet, and a fix modelled to get it back

A worked example: an independent bookshop in a converted Georgian townhouse, where hard floors and high ceilings meant till-point conversations carried across the whole ground floor. Standard, method, and every route, vendor-neutral.

No statutory target — browsing-and-privacy briefRead it

Workplace

A call-centre floor, fixed for distraction rather than volume

A worked example: a 40-desk customer-service floor where agents were being distracted by the desk next to them rather than helped by ambient masking. Standard, method, and every route, vendor-neutral.

BS EN ISO 3382-3 — Open-plan offices (distraction distance)Read it

About this page: these case studies are illustrative briefs, each pairing a real-world type of room with the constraint that shaped the fix, such as a listed building, a short lease or a hygiene rule. They show how the decision is reached, not a customer result. Your own report gives the figures for your own room.