Ecophon Acoustic Bulletin

The Acoustic Guidance for UK Healthcare facilities and its practical implementation are just two of the topics being presented by expert speakers at a Healthcare Conference hosted by Saint-Gobain Ecophon on 9th September at The Kings Fund HQ in London.
Other topics include Design to control Healthcare Associated Infection, Sensory Design for Healing, the Hillingdon Hospital Pilot Ward and Sustainability in Community Healthcare.
Attendance to the conference is free for invited delegates, so if you wish to apply for one of the few remaining spaces please email the Conference Co-ordinator.

The presentations will be made by highly-respected expert speakers:
Professor Brian Duerden, CBE - DoH Chief Inspector of Microbiology and Infection Control;
Richard Budd - Executive Consultant,Sound Research Laboratories, Lead Author of HTM08-01;
Adrian Popplewell - Associate, Ramboll UK Acoustics;
Richard Mazuch - Director of Design Research & Innovation, Nightingale Associates;
Mungo Smith - Director MAAP Architects;
Michael Clarke - Health Manager, Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd.

If you would like any more information, please contact the conference host, Anthony Thomas.

Posted by Anthony Thomas at 10:28 AM | Permalink

Karin Bijsterveld at Maastricht University in the Netherlands published a book on technology, culture, and public problems of noise in the Twentieth Century.

The book is named “Mechanical Sound” and Karin highlights the interaction between various noise sources, people and our society.
It is a written journey among new technology, noise regulation, experts, and politicians – all related to the sounds of our modern society.

Here you can read about and purchase the book!

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Michael Vorländer from Aachen University in Germany contributed with a very interesting feature article on auralization of spaces in Physics Today (June 2009).

It is important to be able to re-create the acoustic sensation of various kinds of spaces. The best possible future scenario would be to already at a design stage, be able to listen to what a space or a room would sound like in reality. This way one would be able to judge the acoustic outcome of using various materials, shapes, acoustic strategies etc.

Auralization is the process of making acoustic technical data audible. Today, we have come rather far in creating tools and understand the relevant mechanisms. Michael Vorländer describes the background and various concepts of auralization in both an understandable and technical way. He also points out what needs to be improved in the future. Issues of future interest are, for example, real-time processing, diffraction and sound-field physics.

Here you can read the abstract and purchase the article!

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 10:57 AM | Permalink

The most common cause of hearing loss is damage to the hair cells in the inner ear. Once hair cells die, humans (like other mammals) aren’t able to grow new ones. Zebrafish, unlike humans, are able to regenerate their damaged hair cells. US researchers hope knowledge about this can help humans in the future.

A research team at the University of Washington in Seattle in USA has been working on finding a way to resolve that problem in experiments involving the zebrafish, a common aquarium denizen. The zebrafish has clusters of hair cells running along the outside of its body that help sense vibrations in the water, working in a similar way to hair cells in the human inner ear. Zebrafish, unlike humans, are able to regenerate their damaged hair cells. Researchers hope their work can unlock secrets to protect human hair cells from becoming damaged and to stimulate the cells to regenerate.

Read more here!

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A way to communicate noise situations in a pedagogic way is to show a “noise film” for various situations.

Especially hard to understand is noise from train traffic, since it contains noisy situations divided by more quiet moments.

One way to pedagogically visualise the outcome of different technical solutions (ground alternative, lowered railway and a railway tunnel) has been done by using film technique. From the home page of Burlöv local community (south of Sweden, just outside Malmö) you can see four different alternatives.

See noise film here!

On the movies you can see how trains are moving through the society of Åkarp. A “noise bubble” follows the trains, showing different intensity. Background noise from the adjacent highways (mornings and afternoons/evenings) is shown as well. What you see is the noise at each position every moment and not the equivalent noise. The movies show an estimated traffic frequency during 10 minutes year 2020.

This way and method to visualise noise or sound situations would also be a good way for indoor room acoustic situations as to estimate consequences for various situations and solutions for schools, hospitals, offices etc. Non-experts would have a more clear understanding of sound situations.

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 10:33 AM | Permalink