Acoustic design & consulting
Independent expertise. Practical solutions. No equipment sales pitch. Commercial audio and acoustic design for schools and athletic facilities, offices, healthcare, and commercial and government buildings.
Consider us the translator between the acoustic jargon and the room you actually want. We will never out-speak our design, and we will never talk over your understanding.
If you're new to this
Most people call because something isn't working: the gym sounds loud but nobody can make out the announcements, the field PA doesn't reach the far bleachers, conversations in the office carry where they shouldn't, or a proposal arrived and nobody can tell whether it's right. You don't need to know what's causing it or what equipment fixes it. Describe the space and what's bothering you, send a floor plan or a few phone photos if you have them, and you'll get a plain explanation of what's going on and what it would reasonably take to fix.
If you do this for a living
Commercial 70V and distributed audio: loudspeaker selection and placement, coverage and intelligibility, zoning, amplifier loading and tap schedules. Sound masking in both direct-field and in-plenum configurations, with target spectra and levels specified per zone. Acoustic treatment guidance distinguished from masking. Assistive-listening and language-interpretation technology recommendations. Independent review of proposals and bills of material against the actual requirement. Deliverables are defined by written scope: annotated layouts on your plan, model recommendations, BOM, technical schedules, review findings, and written performance targets. Credential: Biamp Cambridge sound masking certification. No engineering licensure is claimed; stamped drawings and formal acoustical reports are outside our scope.
- Commercial audio & paging
- 70V and distributed systems for background music, announcements, and paging: loudspeaker selection and placement, coverage, intelligibility, zoning, and amplifier loading. The difference between a system that is loud and one that is understood.
- Education & athletics
- K-12 and higher education: classrooms, cafeterias, gyms, fields, stadiums, and campus audio. This is where much of our experience is, and schools and athletic departments get the same design care as a corporate headquarters, with budgets treated as a real constraint rather than an inconvenience.
- Sound masking & speech privacy
- Open offices, private offices, exam rooms, HR and counseling spaces, and other sensitive areas. Direct-field and in-plenum designs. Certified in Biamp Cambridge sound masking.
- Acoustic treatment
- Panels, clouds, and room-performance guidance for spaces with too much reverberation. Treatment and masking solve different problems and are often confused; we'll tell you which one your room actually needs, and whether it needs both.
- Assistive listening & language interpretation
- Equipment and technology recommendations and design guidance for assistive-listening systems. Assistive listening and language interpretation are distinct design needs. We help clients evaluate appropriate solutions for accessible audio and multilingual communication in schools, meeting spaces, and commercial environments. We advise on appropriate approaches; we do not offer a blanket accessibility-compliance guarantee, and your compliance obligations remain yours to confirm.
- Proposal & BOM reviews, purchasing advisory
- You have a quote from an integrator or dealer. We evaluate the design, whether it fits the space, whether alternatives would serve you better, how the budget aligns, and what questions to ask before signing. Independent of anyone's sales incentive.
- How we're independent
- Rebel Herd Media does not sell, stock, ship, order, or install equipment. We design systems, create and review bills of material, recommend specific brands and models, prepare layouts and technical schedules, explain price and performance tradeoffs, and advise on supplier comparisons. Vendor-neutral means our recommendations are independent of equipment sales incentives, not that we avoid naming manufacturers. You select the suppliers and installers. Where sellers offer educational pricing, we'll point it out, but we can't promise it.
- Deliverables & scope
- Every engagement is quoted to a written scope. Depending on the project, that may include annotated plans, speaker or emitter layouts, zoning, model recommendations, a BOM, amplifier loading and tap settings, review findings, purchasing advice, and written performance targets your installer can check the finished system against. Bid support, revision rounds, and answering your installer's questions are included only where the scope says so. We do not perform or supervise installation, programming, commissioning, calibration, testing, or final system verification, on-site or remotely; those belong to the installer you choose. We don't guarantee installer performance, and we are not a licensed engineering firm: stamped drawings and formal acoustical reports are outside what we offer.
- Mounting, rigging & suspension
- We are not rigging specialists or structural engineers. Equipment placement in our designs is conceptual: it shows where sound needs to come from, not how a device is attached. Mounting must follow the manufacturer's requirements, and nothing in our deliverables constitutes rigging approval. Suspension, structural suitability, and any nonstandard mounting method must be evaluated by qualified professionals before anything is hung.
Already have an audio system quote? Get an independent second opinion.
Before you commit your budget, make sure the proposed system fits your space, your needs, and your financial priorities.
Businesses, schools, and government organizations often receive audio system proposals that are technically workable but may not be the most practical or cost-effective solution for their specific requirements.
Rebel Herd Media provides independent design and bill of materials (BOM) reviews to help you understand exactly what you're being asked to purchase.
Independent advice. Your interests come first.
We don't sell equipment, receive commissions on recommended products, or benefit from increasing the size of your purchase. Our recommendations are based on your project requirements, not a manufacturer's sales goals or a dealer's inventory.
An independent review may identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary spending, improve system suitability, or simply confirm that the original proposal is appropriate. Sometimes the best advice is that your existing proposal is a good one.
Know what you're buying before you sign.
Whether you're evaluating a single conference room or a multi-building audio project, we'll help you understand your options and make an informed decision.
Why this is worth paying for
Audio proposals are usually written by the people who sell the equipment, and product choices can follow margin as easily as they follow the application. A review is a modest, fixed fee quoted before any technical work begins. If it finds a simpler design, a better-fitting product, or a line item you don't need, the savings can be many times the fee. If it finds nothing to change, you've bought confidence in a purchase you were about to make anyway.
What we evaluate
- The design
- Does the proposed system address the actual needs of your facility?
- The equipment
- Are the recommended products appropriate for the application? Could alternatives provide comparable performance or better value?
- The budget
- Does the proposal make responsible use of available funding? Are there opportunities to simplify the system without compromising its purpose?
- The details
- Are there missing components, unnecessary complexity, or specifications that deserve clarification?
- The purchasing decision
- What questions should you ask your dealer or integrator before approving the project?
Please don't send confidential drawings or restricted proposals through the contact form; we'll arrange a private way to share them after we talk.
A few things worth understanding before you buy anything
Gyms, fields, and stadiums: loud is not the same as clear
Most complaints about gym, cafeteria, and field systems aren't about volume. They're about intelligibility: the sound arrives, but the words don't. That's a function of loudspeaker placement, coverage pattern, zoning, and the room itself. Adding power to a badly placed system makes it louder and no clearer. Design fixes it; bigger amplifiers usually don't.
Sound masking, briefly
Sound masking is not noise cancellation. It's a carefully shaped, barely noticeable background sound tuned to the range of human speech. Raising that background a little in the right bands reduces how far a conversation stays intelligible, which can improve speech privacy and reduce distraction when the system is appropriately designed and implemented. It doesn't isolate sound or make a conversation confidential, and it shouldn't be sold as if it did. Done well, nobody notices it. Done badly, people complain about a hiss and turn it off. The difference is in the design and the performance targets, which is why those are written into the design rather than left to the installer's defaults.
Direct-field or in-plenum
Masking can be delivered by emitters facing down through the ceiling tile, or by loudspeakers firing up into the plenum so the sound filters down. Each is right for different ceiling types, plenum depths, HVAC layouts, and budgets. We design both and recommend the one your building wants.
Treatment is a different job
If the problem is echo and reverberation, a loud room where sound hangs in the air, that's acoustic treatment: absorptive panels and clouds that change how the room behaves. Masking won't fix it, and treatment won't give you speech privacy. We'll be clear about which problem you have.
How an engagement runs
- Scoping. You describe the space and the problem; floor plans and photos help if you have them. We agree a written scope and fee.
- Design or review. You receive the deliverables defined in that scope, explained in plain language with the reasoning shown.
- Questions. You, your supplier, or your installer can come back with questions on the design within the scope.
- Handoff. You take the design to the suppliers and installers you choose. If performance targets are part of the scope, they're written so the installer can verify the result; the measuring and adjusting is their work, not ours.
Describe the room. We'll tell you what it needs.
A floor plan and a couple of phone photos are the fastest route to a useful first answer, but a description in your own words is enough to start.