Projects


Qwest Center Omaha

K-13 Application in convention halls.

The Qwest Center was developed in Omaha to offer a variety of services for local entertainment. The Arena, Ballrooms, and the Convention Halls were combined to offer the perfect mix of styles for most anyone's needs from conventions and trade shows to mainliner acts. After several years of work the building has produced some of the best convention space results in the industry and has delivered exciting entertainment to millions of people.

One area that was getting some bad publicity was the convention space. Any event that needed to have audio for speech, concert or playback was hindered by the blurred and incoherent auido signals caused by the reverberation level in the space. 4TEC Integration contacted Ms. Howard of the Qwest Center MECA office and discussed the issues in detail. After the meeting 4TEC devised a plan to go into the convention space and test the sound intelligibility and reverberation to quantify the level of treatment needed to provide a usable environment. The obvious choice in the Convention space, where the walls can only be treated to a 20ft. height minimum and the floor absolutely cannot be treated due to the heavy equipment shows and such, was to use K-13 spray on cellulose.

Why we used k-14?
  • Odorless so adjacent rooms and the Arena could be in use without interruption Strong adhesion and durable finish for roof application.
  • Effective sound control with the top rating in the industry per inch of material.
  • Efficient insulating product with the top rating per inch in R value of material.
  • Ecologically safe bio-degradable renewable resource which is 50% recycled goods.
  • Environmentally aesthetic product which creates a acoustically soft enjoyable space for conversations and presentations.
  • Properly certified to meet all of the local building codes and fire codes.
  • Available in many colors to match the interior ceiling and upper walls which were Black (available in light gray, light tan, black, white, brown).
  • Mold resistant material which would maintain it's integrity if a leak would occur and not retain the water causing a mold hazard in the building.
  • The product is very easy to clean up as it is water based and can easily be removed during spraying and touched up by painting the surfaces if any over spray or drift due to air flow in building should occur.

The project was scheduled for the slowest month of business and performed without any major issues. Upon completion the space was repainted to touch up the over spray and drift and returned back to service within a day of completion. 4TEC Integration attended a Product show two weeks after the spray was installed which entailed a booth in the center of the convention space. When talking to clients at the show many complimented the change the K-13 treatment offered to the space and explained that this was the first time they were able to understand the announcements over the PA system. The booths with heavy equipment running and people talking throughout the space was very quiet and had a soft reverberation that was very low level in comparison to the before conditions. The project was a complete success. 4TEC has recently separated the acoustical services and added insulation services to develop a separate company named "E4 Acoustical treatment and Insulation".


Metro Community College

Recording Studio Remodel

The project involved freshening the space and reconditioning the rooms to provide state of the art acoustics for digital professional recording. E4 provides a unique process for conditioning pre-built spaces that are in need of acoustical treatments by first testing the space, then designing the treatment, and then testing the space after treatment for fine tuning and confirmation of the sound. When the project was completed, the room had a new look with the new digital Protools and Apple sound mixer and production booth in place, the sound from the brand new JBL monitors was clear and fairly dry. The difference with the new digital recording studio is the fact it is digital and can add echo and reverb for the ambient room sounds you are looking for at a click of a mouse or trackball. So new labs and studios are built with a dryer sound delivery so as to not color the effects you mix into the sound before mastering. The college really is a one of a kind design as they want to show students an experience of what is good sound recording practices versus less professional styles. The design for treatment includes some portable tiles that can be placed according to the instruments or voices that are in the room for recording. They also allow the professor to remove them and show the effects of the bass signals off of the corners in the square studio booth. So the room can be made to sound untreated, semi-treated, and professional by moving some of the tiles around to create different sound issues you can experience and learn about through the courses they offer.


Varsity Sports Cafe

K-13 applied to first floor metal ceiling.

K-13 applied to first floor metal ceiling to reduce noise transfer to office spaces above.


Iowa Event Center

K-13 Application to remove reverberation

The event center was plagued by a reverberation issue which made speech and audio unintelligible. After researching the center and preforming audio tests. It was determined that K-13 would best suite the center's acoustical needs. With a short timeline to install the treatment, the E4 acoustics team was up to the task and was able to complete the job within the narrow window of the center's operations and events.