Walks through Echo's five-step flow: four questions about the room, a Sabine/Eyring reverberation calculation run in under 60 seconds, speech clarity worked out using IEC 60268-16, the result compared against the relevant ISO 3382 target, and five fix options presented with the exact surface area each one needs.

Covers all three ways to use it: a free instant check, a £34.99 one-off branded PDF report for a single room, and Echo Studio at £149/month for anyone specifying more than one room.

Covers the rooms that most commonly go wrong acoustically -- restaurants, classrooms, open-plan offices, hotel lobbies and bars, co-working floors -- and the five treatment categories Echo always checks: ceiling rafts, wall panels, carpet with underlay, curtains, and upholstered seating.

States Echo's real pricing throughout: £34.99 one-off, £149/month for Studio (including its 15-day-before-first-charge and 3-month minimum terms), £299/month for Pro.

Goes deep on the science: RT60, STI, C50 and DIN 18041 Class B, background noise in dB(A), the Sabine/Eyring equations, ISO 354 absorption coefficients, flutter echo and comb filtering -- and where Echo Pro's geometric ray-tracing goes further than a statistical prediction.

Sourced from the methodology and glossary pages only (no FAQ in this pair), so this episode correctly doesn't state a price -- it closes on the free instant check and echo.acoustaplot.com instead.

Covers the real standards Echo checks a result against: BB93 for UK classrooms, ANSI/ASA S12.60 for North American core learning spaces, DIN 18041 for Germany/DACH -- and is honest that restaurants, retail, hotel bars and co-working floors have no single mandated legal target, so those get compared against equivalent guidance instead.

Draws the same honest line Echo states everywhere: this is a design-stage prediction, and a formal measured survey to BS EN ISO 3382-2 by a qualified acoustician is what a contractual sign-off actually needs.

Studio runs a single Sabine/Eyring whole-room average and handles flat, sloped or vaulted ceilings -- aimed at designers, fit-out companies and venues. Pro runs full geometric ray-tracing, surface by surface and seat by seat -- aimed at architects and consultants working on auditoria, lecture halls and performance spaces.

States the real live pricing: Studio at £149/month (or £447 for the first 3 months) with a 3-month minimum term; Pro, still in development and waitlist-only, at £299/month (or £897 for the first 3 months).

Walks through the three points in a real design workflow Echo is built for: a fast check at concept stage, a DXF-import-driven check at detailed design, and a final figure to show a client at sign-off -- each with the same five fix options and exact surface areas.

Framed for architects specifically: works on a phone or iPad for a site visit, keeps an order record for 6 years so a report can always be re-downloaded, and is explicit that it's a design-stage prediction tool, not a substitute for a consultant or a formal measured survey under BS EN ISO 3382-2 when a contractual figure is required.

Makes the case for vendor-neutral advice directly: a business that sells acoustic panels has an obvious incentive to recommend buying more of them; Echo is paid for by the report itself, not by what you buy afterwards, so its five treatment routes (ceiling rafts, wall panels, carpet with underlay, curtains, upholstered seating) are shown on their real merits.

Closes with the real numbers: £34.99 one-off, no account or subscription required, a print-ready branded A4 report, and Echo Studio at £149/month for anyone doing this for a living.

An illustrative worked example: an 8 x 6.5 x 3.6m Victorian classroom (187m3) with a baseline reverberation time of 1.15 seconds -- well outside BB93 Table 6's refurbishment limits (0.8s primary, 1.0s secondary).

Treated with roughly 26m2 of wall panels and 52m2 of carpet tile (which also helps with footfall noise); curtains were costed but not used. Result: 0.55 seconds, comfortably inside the binding limit -- a design-stage Sabine/Eyring prediction, not a substitute for a measured survey to BS EN ISO 3382-2.

An illustrative worked example: a 22 x 14 x 4.2m open-plan floor (about 1,294m3) in a converted warehouse -- exposed brick, polished concrete, no suspended ceiling, all treated as non-negotiable design constraints.

Baseline reverberation of roughly 0.9 seconds against WELL v2's 0.5-second open-workspace threshold. Treated with about 210m2 of ceiling-hung rafts and 90m2 of fabric-wrapped wall panels, plus 4 freestanding acoustic call booths for privacy (not counted toward the reverberation figure). Result: 0.48 seconds -- inside the WELL threshold, industrial character intact.

An illustrative worked example: a 36 x 20 x 8m sports hall (5,760m3) with reverberation over 2 seconds, checked against Sport England guidance.

Treated with about 260m2 of ceiling rafts hung between the rooflights (daylight deliberately preserved) and 140m2 of high-level wall panels kept above the 2.5m ball-strike line. An 18m curtain divider track was priced as a reserve option but not used. Result: roughly 1.3 seconds.

An illustrative worked example: a 7.5 x 6 x 3m seminar room (135m3) at 0.95 seconds reverberation, checked against BB93 Table 6's 0.6-second primary new-build limit by analogy (a university room, not a school, so treated as a reference point rather than a direct requirement).

A full-height glass corridor wall was untouchable (fire strategy and listed-building constraints), so the fix concentrated on the other three surfaces: about 38m2 of ceiling rafts, 22m2 of fabric wall panels opposite the glass, and 45m2 of full carpet tiling. Result: 0.58 seconds -- inside the reference target despite the one wall left untreated.

An illustrative worked example: a 12 x 9 x 4.5m combined lobby/bar (486m3) in a converted, listed Georgian townhouse -- stone, marble, plaster ceiling and sash windows, all hard surfaces, at 1.4 seconds reverberation with no statutory limit (target set by guest experience, roughly 0.7-0.9s).

Listed status ruled out wall panels entirely, so every treatment was freestanding or removable: 22m2 of lined sash-window drapes, banquette seating for 14, and a 30m2 wool rug (the entrance marble left untouched). Result: 0.8 seconds.

An illustrative worked example: a 16 x 10 x 6.5m single-storey community hall (1,040m3) -- brick walls, parquet floor, exposed roof trusses -- at 1.3 seconds reverberation against a brief-set target of 0.8-0.9s.

No budget for scaffolding or a contractor lift meant every fix had to be installable by volunteers from a stepladder, ruling out wall panels. Treated with 18m2 of curtains at the tall side windows, a 24m2 carpet runner down the central aisle, and seat pads on 60 stacking chairs. Result: 0.85 seconds.

An illustrative worked example: a 16 x 8 x 3.8m open-kitchen dining room (486m3) -- polished concrete, painted brick, exposed steel trusses, full-height street glazing -- at roughly 4.3 seconds against a comfort target of 0.8s or below (no statutory regulation applies).

The open kitchen pass couldn't be covered and the street glazing ruled out curtains, so the fix used about 82m2 of suspended ceiling baffles (roughly two-thirds of the ceiling) positioned clear of the pass, banquette seating for 22, and 14m2 of felt wall panels on the one wall without glazing or kitchen frontage. Result: about 0.8 seconds.

An illustrative worked example: an 11 x 6 x 2.6m GP reception and waiting area (about 172m3) at 0.75 seconds reverberation, where reception conversations were carrying across the whole room.

The practice's infection-control policy ruled out any soft, uncleanable fabric surface below 1.2 metres -- eliminating the obvious floor-standing screen fix. Treated instead with about 66m2 of wipeable Class-A ceiling tiles (a straight grid swap), a 4m2 suspended acoustic screen above the counter, and curtains mounted above seating height. Result: 0.75s down to 0.45s, and reception conversations no longer audible past the first row.

An illustrative worked example: an 18 x 10 x 4m boutique sales floor (720m3) -- polished concrete, painted brick, a full-height mirror wall -- at 1.15 seconds reverberation, causing till-point speech-clarity problems.

The brief ruled out the mirror wall and anything that looked like a conventional acoustic panel. Treated with framed fabric panels disguised as artwork (about 16m2, Class-A absorptive), an 18m2 wool rug in the fitting-room seating area, and ceiling baffles tucked into the existing exposed services (about 8m2). Result: 0.75 seconds, target range 0.7-0.8s.

An illustrative worked example: a 19 x 14 x 3.4m open-plan co-working floor (904m3) in a converted warehouse -- polished concrete, exposed brick and services -- at 0.95 seconds reverberation, causing call-clarity and concentration complaints.

The head lease's dilapidations clause required the floor returned to bare shell, ruling out any fixed ceiling or drilled panel. Treated with freestanding acoustic screens between desk clusters (about 45m2 of screen face, also solving a visual-privacy complaint), a modular rug system across the floor (about 140m2, no gluing), and three freestanding acoustic phone booths. Result: 0.6 seconds, every component liftable at lease end.

An illustrative worked example: a 9 x 9 x 4.2m meeting room (about 340m3) with a reverberation time of roughly 1.4 seconds -- fine for silent worship, but hard to hear across for the weekday hire bookings (antenatal classes, a bereavement support group) the building's upkeep depends on.

No statutory target applied; the brief set 0.8-0.9s from the hire use itself. Treated entirely reversibly to protect the worship character: 40 stored chair pads brought out only for weekday use, and one small fixed felt panel (about 4m2) behind the usual facilitator's seat. Result: about 0.85 seconds with the treatment deployed, back to the untreated 1.4s for worship when it's put away.

An illustrative worked example: a 12 x 9 x 5m spin studio (540m3) in a converted warehouse -- painted concrete block, polished concrete floor, exposed steel-deck ceiling -- at 1.6 seconds reverberation, a safety-relevant problem since instructor cueing was getting lost during fast classes.

The brand's exposed steel-and-concrete look across every studio location couldn't be covered, ruling out a solid suspended ceiling. Treated with suspended vertical baffles below the steel deck (about 60m2 equivalent absorption, deck still visible), backlit branded wall panels at head height (about 20m2), and a full-height curtain across the entrance lobby glazing. Result: 0.9 seconds -- roughly half the starting figure.

An illustrative worked example: a 6 x 4.5 x 2.9m combined dental reception and waiting area (about 78m3) -- plasterboard walls and ceiling, ceramic tile floor -- at 0.8 seconds reverberation, where a patient had overheard another patient's treatment cost from across the room.

Non-negotiable shopfront glazing limited what curtains could contribute. Treated with a low glazed screen with an acoustic core at one desk position (angled to break the direct sightline), about 27m2 of acoustic ceiling tiles, and about 6m2 of wall paneling along the seating run. Result: 0.5 seconds -- the overheard-conversation complaint resolved directly, and card-payment repeat-backs dropped within the first week.

An illustrative worked example: a 9 x 5.5 x 3.8m ground-floor sales floor (about 188m3) in a converted Georgian townhouse -- painted plaster walls, original bare floorboards, a plaster ceiling with its original rose -- at roughly 1.1 seconds reverberation.

The owner wanted the ceiling rose, cornicing and original floorboards kept fully visible, so the fix came entirely from the walls and freestanding elements: about 14m2 of full-height fabric wall panels on uncovered wall sections, an upholstered bench seat near the till (about 3m2, doubling as seating and absorption right at the complaint point), and a heavy curtain at the stockroom doorway. Result: about 0.75 seconds, target range 0.7-0.8s.

An illustrative worked example: a 22 x 14 x 3.2m open-plan call-centre floor (986m3, 40 desks). This case is framed around ISO 3382-3 distraction distance rather than a simple before/after reverberation figure -- the source material doesn't give RT numbers, and the episode correctly doesn't invent any.

Starting distraction distance covered 3-4 desk positions with no screening. Brand guidelines ruled out taller desk screens, so the fix used a like-for-like high-performance suspended ceiling tile across the full 310m2 floor, 40 low, sightline-preserving fabric dividers, and a tuned low-level sound-masking system. Result: distraction distance down to roughly one desk position, with concentration complaints back in line with the company's other sites the following quarter.