Ecophon Acoustic Bulletin

In a Swedish TV program noisy school canteens were on the agenda. A resent study on noise levels in school canteens were referred to. It was mentioned that half of the pupils in the Swedish comprehensive schools feel bad due to school canteen noise levels. Children may get stomach pain; head ache or feel more stressed due to noise. The child reporter interviewed an adult regarding what you can do about it. The child concluded the interview with stating that also wall absorbers are needed! Here you can read more about it (in Swedish) and here is the checklist as a pdf.

Items on the checklist for quieter school canteens in English are;

1. Reduce the amount of pupils eating at the same time
2. Put sound absorbers in the ceiling, and possibly also at the walls as to reduce noise
3. Divide the school canteen in smaller sections using screens
4. Place adults among the children – it will be calmer
5. Change chairs with noisy steel legs
6. Put soft pads under the legs of the chair
7. Place a screen in front of where you hand in the dishes
8. Ask pupils for suggestions

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 4:01 PM | Permalink

Since August this year a new standard was published in the Netherlands dealing with noise at the workplace. An international interest in this standard will soon result in an english version to be made available. Planning for that is early next year.
The full title is NPR 3438 Noise at the workplace - Determination of the amount of disturbance of communication and concentration. Information on this was published earlier already on this website. I think it's worth mentioning again since creation or revision of standards is no daily news. In case you want to learn more, please check the website of the Dutch Standardisation Institute (NEN) for the dutch version or contact Ecophon for more details.

Posted by Marc Janssen at 2:58 PM | Permalink

On November 27th to December 1st 2007 the Acoustical Society of America held one of it's two annual meetings in New Orleans, Louisiana. Interesting areas covered in the conference were Speech communication, Speech perception, Architectural Acoustics, Education in acoustics and Noise. Hot items in acoustics in US right now are privacy in healthcare and environmental oriented programs like LEED.

Around 700 papers in different fields of acoustics were presented and as usual many different working and standardisation groups (ANSI and ISO)had meetings. Some meetings started already at 7 a.m., others were finished as late as 10 p.m.
The ongoing standardization work on privacy in healthcare has the objective that none shall be able to hear and understand what's being said, regardless of your role or where abouts. A very difficult issue to solve, but crucial for the privacy and integrity in US.

USGBS's green building environmental programme LEED has now adopted acoustic credits in school premises. Under conditions that reverberation time is following the ANSI standard's requirements and that the background noise level is below certain levels, you can achieve 2-3 points in the LEED evaluation. There is also proposals out for comment concerning getting points in LEED for privacy in healthcare.
More information can be found here

Posted by Nils-Åke Andersson at 10:33 AM | Permalink

From June 29th till July 4th 2008 “Acoustics’08 Paris” will be held in the Palais des Congrès in Paris. The conference is being organized by the ASA, the EAA and the Société Française d’Acoustique (SFA). It will bring together experts from all fields of acoustics from around the world.

Room acoustics in schools, offices AND health care facilities

Besides sessions on room acoustics in schools and offices, this conference will also strongly focus on sound in Health Care facilities. Erica Ryherd (Georgia institute of Technology) and Marc Janssen (Ecophon Group) will chair one of the health care related sessions.

ACOUSTICS AND HEALTH CARE FACILITIES
There will be 2 main hospital noise sessions, each of which is split into two parts:

Session 1: Acoustics & Privacy in Healthcare Facilities
1A) AA13 - Emerging policy around the world.
Organised by David Sykes & Kerstin Persson-Waye
1B) AA14 - Emerging research around the world.
Organised by William Cavanaugh & Kerstin Persson-Waye

Session 2: Noise, vibration and acoustics for medical and research facilities and their occupants
2A) NS15_1 - Hospital noise effects on patients, medical staff and occupant safety. Organised by Erica Ryherd & Marc Janssen
2B) NS15_2 - Scientific and medical research facilities and hospitals. Organised by Jack Evans & Marc Asselineau

Another health care related session will be:

NS16 - Sleep disturbances and other health effects
Recent research on sleep disturbance and other health effects. Organized by Lily Wang, Barbara Griefahn & Jacques Lambert

Please check “Acoustics’08 Paris” for more information and updates. We look forward to meet you again!

Posted by Marc Janssen at 9:13 AM | Permalink