Sound Solutions

John Sanderson of Home Media, specialists in sound and vision, tells how he installed a cleverly designed garden audio system to cut out the background noise of the traffic and helped to restore the peace and harmony in a customer’s garden.

“From inside the house, the traffic was barely audible. But as soon as the customer opened the door to the back garden, it was another matter entirely. The family lived near a busy road which ran along the back of his garden and the noise from the traffic was incessant. Lorries and cars travelled along the road continuously ruining his peaceful sanctuary.
My customer had already installed an acoustic fence to cut out some of the noise generated by the traffic and had planted reeds and rushes to absorb noise too. But it was not enough and we were approached to see if there was anything we, at Home Media, could do to mask the constant noise of the traffic and so allow him and his family to be able to sit out and enjoy their lovely garden.

We knew we could not get rid of the noise completely but by using the Sonance Garden System we know we could make a significant difference. The system, from distributor Habitech, featured two lots of eight speakers each with a sub-woofer. The family had a party on the Saturday so the pressure was on to install the system so the guests could enjoy the event.

It took two days of work and speakers were placed along the back fence with the sub-woofer buried in the ground. The other eight speakers were placed in the forefront of the garden allowing different sounds to be provided, if needed, by each system.

The back speakers were used to play ambient sound such as the sound of wind through the trees and bird song which covered the road noise. It was so effective we were slightly worried about what the cat population would think about it. We even tried playing the sounds of the Serengeti but we are not sure what the other residents made of it.

The system masked over 60 per cent of the traffic noise and the advantage of the two speaker systems was that the nature noises could be played through one set while music could be played through the other. Alternatively, music could be played through both zones and the volume could be adjusted so it did not annoy the neighbours.

The Sonance Garden System was luxurious and the feedback was superb.

We popped in after the installation to make sure the customer was pleased with it. He absolutely loved it. He thought the system was superb and was really pleased with it and happy to be able to enjoy his garden at last”.

We have been offering top quality audio visual equipment since 1996 to find out more about Home Media, check out our About page. If you would like to discuss your garden AV then contact our friendly team at Home Media 01622 676703 – we would be delighted to help and chat to you about all the options.