LEC Upgrade Committee Recommends Sound Improvement

(May 19, 2026) The Church Council unanimously approved a plan to improve the sound abatement in the Life Enrichment Center. The LEC Improvement Committee spent the last several weeks meeting with contractors who presented various ways to reduce the echo that makes it difficult to hear clearly in the gym.

The Committee presented the Church Council with a sound abatement plan that will cost $53,731 and will include absorption treatments in the ceiling of the LEC as well as fabric-covered panels placed around the perimeter of the gym. Other bidders presented a more expensive but decorative wood-paneled option, and a third bidder suggested only hanging abatement from the rafters. The bid that was presented by Commercial Acoustics included both the wall treatment and the rafters solution for much less money than the other two options that had more limited application.

It is difficult to predict how much of a difference we will notice in the echos. Experts measure the “decay rate” of a material that is used in abatement. The decay rate is the time in seconds it takes for a sound to drop by 60dB. Gymnasiums are large, lively spaces designed for high reverberation 1.5 to 3.0 seconds.

A typical meeting room or office space might have a sound decay rate of closer to .6 seconds.

We estimate the LEC’s decay rate is currently around 3 seconds and we hope to drop it below 1 second. That would be a 66% improvment, in other words enough that we think we will all notice an improvement, but it won’t be as quiet as an office. It is, after all, still a gym! Learn more about sound abatement here.

Look for the work to happen mid-summer.