Baffled by Baffles

[mjf]

Hi All,

I'm looking for input on how I can go about configuring baffles / ceiling protection for my garage simulator install that is currently underway. My screen will be going in underneath a beam which is surrounded by framing / a bulkhead (take a look at the attached diagram / photo to see what I'm talking about). There will be a ~13 inch high vertical area above the screen that goes up to the ceiling. I'm particularly concerned about that vertical area possibly being hit and balls going who knows where.

I'm kind of thinking of that maybe I could put something like three inches of memory foam in front of that... and then cover that with a foam flooring tile? Maybe also something similar on the horizontal space just in front of and above the screen?

And then... on top of all of that (below actually!) some kind of baffles? I'm thinking a LARGE piece of material from Peaks Tarps and making a bunch of 'waves' of material kind of like I have shown with the tape in the attached photo. But I really have no idea what I'm doing.

So I'm looking for any recommendations the group might have to offer.

Note: Although the screen is 9 feet high, I think we'll be projecting a 16:10 image on it so the top of the image may only go up to 8.5 feet.

Thanks!

[6-sixer]

Hey MJF. I just thought through this myself and decided that baffles weren’t for me. The only place I’ve seen them is at a golf store and found that balls don’t always hit the baffles.

So instead I made the sides and top of mine out of golf netting backed by a simple (and cheap) photo background material. The net stops the ball and the background material is for light blocking and overall aesthetics. I’ll attach a picture. The middle above my screen is a double layer of net, since I had enough to just fold it and figured that would get the most balls. It is attached to the ceiling about a foot in front of the screen to give it a little angle. It’s heavy enough that the net barely moves when hit and the ball falls straight down.

Take a look at the pic and if this is something that would work for you I can give you more details.

[mjf]

I'll give your idea some thought. We're going to go with curtains on the sides so, almost just to keep things matching, we were planning to go with the same material for the top... but your net idea seems like a good one. Thanks.

[cphillips82]

I would do a couple feet of framing that slopes down from the ceiling to the baffle so that any ball that hits up there would hit the angle and go straight down vs back at you if you were to hit that baffle straight on. You could drywall it or just run some osb/plywood and then cover the entire ceiling area with carpet tiles. Easy peasy and will look nice and neat.

[mjf]

Thanks for the idea! I should have thought of that myself but I'll definitely look to incorporate that in for safety. Even covered by baffles, the thought of a vertical area that could be hit and a ricochet coming straight back at me had me concerned.