Acoustic Services — Schaeffer Engineering Group

01 — Services

When to call us.

Most acoustic problems in hospitality fall into one of six patterns. We're equipped, priced, and scheduled to handle all of them — fast.

01 / Compliance

311 Complaints & Code Compliance

Defensible measurements at the property line and inside affected residences. Reports sized for DEP, SLA, and community board proceedings — and for the next morning's call with your attorney.

02 / Transmission

Sound Bleed & Isolation

Field measurement of noise transmission between rooms, floors, and tenancies. Hotels, condos over retail, rooftop and below-grade adjacencies. We identify the actual flanking path, not just the symptom.

03 / Room

Room Acoustics & Restaurant Noise

Reverberation (RT60), intelligibility, and treatment recommendations for restaurants, hotel lobbies, and retail. The "our restaurant is too loud" problem usually isn't a volume problem — it's a reverb problem.

04 / Pre-Construction

Baselines & Adjacency Studies

Ambient surveys and adjacency studies before a build-out, lease, or tenant fit-out. Documents the noise climate before construction so you have a defensible baseline if anything comes up later.

05 / Systems

Sound System Optimization

1/3-octave RTA, system EQ, time-alignment, and coverage measurement. STIPA testing for paging and life-safety systems where intelligibility is a code requirement.

06 / Monitoring

Multi-Day Unattended Logging

Logged measurement studies over 3–7 days for chronic complaints, contested DEP proceedings, and post-mitigation verification. The defensible answer when a single reading won't hold up.

02 — Process

How an engagement actually works.

Most jobs follow the same arc: a fast diagnostic call, a focused site visit, a written report, and — if needed — a clear path to mitigation. No multi-month proposals, no committee.

Step 01 · Day 0

Diagnostic call

15-minute phone call to understand the problem, the stakes, and whether measurement is the right next step. Free.

Step 02 · 48–72 hrs

Site visit

Class 1 measurement at the venue and any receiving residence. Multi-position logging, 1/3-octave analysis, photo documentation.

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Step 03 · Within a week

Written report

Methodology, results, code comparison, transmission path identification, phased mitigation recommendations. Issued under Schaeffer.

Step 04 · Optional

Mitigation

If the report identifies a fixable problem, our Audio Design and Lighting practices can deliver the build — treatment, isolation, system rework.

03 — Pricing

Tiered to the work, not the firm.

We're priced and scaled for situations where the major acoustic firms are overkill. Most engagements come in between $1,200 and $5,500. Mitigation work is quoted separately through our Audio and Lighting practices.

Site assessment + summary memo

$1,200 – $2,000

2–3 hour site visit, 4–6 page memo. Best for first-pass diagnostics and internal documentation.

Full assessment + formal report Most common

$2,800 – $5,500

4–6 hour visit, 5–8 measurement positions, 15–25 page report with charts and phased mitigation.

Multi-day logging study

$4,500 – $8,500

3–7 days of unattended logging. Most defensible deliverable for contested proceedings or chronic complaints.

RT60 / room acoustics study

$2,000 – $4,000

Reverberation analysis and treatment recommendations. The fix for "our restaurant is too loud."

Sound system optimization

$1,500 – $3,500

Tuning, EQ, time-alignment, coverage measurement. No formal report — focused on outcomes.

311 emergency response

$1,800 minimum

Same-week or same-day site visit, 24–48 hour memo. For active complaints and imminent hearings.

Monthly retainer

$1,500 – $3,000 / mo

Priority access, quarterly check-in measurement. For multi-property operators and law firms with steady caseloads.

A note on scope: we do measurement, documentation, and advisory work. For projects requiring stamped engineering deliverables, we partner with a credentialed acoustical engineer. Quoted as needed.

Deliverable

See exactly what a real report looks like.

A 9-page sample assessment based on a representative scenario — methodology, measurement charts, code comparison, and phased mitigation costing. The format every Tier 2 engagement uses.

Download sample report (PDF) ↓

Schaeffer Engineering Group

Acoustic Services Division

Acoustic Assessment · Sample

Noise Complaint Response & Sound Transmission Assessment

Principal finding: L_Aeq,60s 47.6 dBA — sustained exceedance of 42 dBA threshold during peak operation.

Project

SEG-AC-2026-007

Tier

Full Assessment

04 — FAQ

Common questions.

Q.01

How are you different from Cerami, Arup, or Shen Milsom & Wilke?

Those firms are excellent and necessary for stamped engineering, large institutional projects, and forensic-grade work. We're sized and priced for the layer below — venue compliance, sound bleed, room acoustics, and complaint response that doesn't require an acoustical PE on staff. When a project crosses into engineering territory, we partner with a credentialed acoustical engineer rather than trying to be something we're not.

Q.02

Will your report hold up at a DEP or SLA hearing?

Yes — for documenting measured conditions. Our reports use Class 1 / Type 1 instrumentation per IEC 61672-1, document pre- and post-measurement field calibration, follow ANSI and ASTM measurement standards, and are issued under Schaeffer Engineering Group. Code interpretation is provided as technical context; clients are advised to engage hospitality counsel for the regulatory strategy.

Q.03

How fast can you actually be on site?

Standard turnaround is 48–72 hours from engagement. Same-week and same-day site visits are available for active 311 complaints and imminent hearings, at a premium tier. Multi-day unattended logging studies are scheduled around the venue's actual programming pattern, which usually means starting on a representative weekend.

Q.04

Do you do mitigation work, or just measurement?

Both. Measurement and reporting come out of the Acoustic Services division. When a report identifies a fixable problem, mitigation is scoped and delivered through our Audio Design or Lighting practices, depending on the work — speaker repositioning, system retuning, treatment, isolation, or full rework. The two engagements are separately quoted and contracted.

Q.05

What does a typical first engagement look like?

For an active 311 complaint: 15-minute diagnostic call, site visit within 48–72 hours, full assessment with phased mitigation in the $2,800–$4,500 range, report inside a week. For pre-construction baseline work: site visit, documentation, memo deliverable in the $1,500–$2,500 range. Either way, the diagnostic call is free and we can usually tell within ten minutes whether measurement is the right next step.

Class 1 acoustic measurement, built for NYC hospitality.