Ecophon Acoustic Bulletin

Every other in Sweden is disturbed by Noise! According to a recent report, noise is a major problem at work. Almost every employee is affected, says the president of Hörselskadades (Hearing impaired) Association (HRF), who commissioned the report. "The problem with the sound environment is everywhere - even in school and at cafes for example.

Luckily an increasing amount of organisations have found ways to overcome this challenging sitiuation...

... by applying effctive ways to control the noise and even improving the perfomance and well-being of staff as a result. To know how they did it, read more here or contact one of the editors click hereSmart ways to master the sound environment are also discussed in the report. For offices, 17 suggestions are made:
1. Acoustic ceilings
2. Free hanging absorbing units
3. wall absorbers
4. bookshelves

The report referes to a questionnaire performed by Jonas Christensson of Ecophon and mentions outcomes from the study called Acoustic ergonomics of Schools, by G. Tiesler and Markus Oberdörster

Posted by Marc Janssen at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A recent recording in an mosque gives an example of the unique and remarkable acoustic characteristics which can be experienced, click here to view on youtube.

Posted by Colin Campbell at 11:13 AM | Permalink

Musicians, trained to hear sounds embedded in a rich network of melodies and harmonies, are primed to understand speech in a noisy background.

"The study points to a highly pragmatic side of music's magic," said Nina Kraus, Hugh Knowles Professor of Communication Sciences and Neurobiology and director of Northwestern's Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, where the research was done.

The results support the potential use of musical training to address auditory processing and communication disorders.

"Musical training makes musicians really good at picking out melodies, the bass line, the sound of their own instruments from complex sounds," Kraus said. Now, for the first time, this study has confirmed that such fine tuning of the nervous system also makes musicians highly adept at translating speech in noise.

Better perception in noise was linked with better working memory and tone discrimination ability. Musical training may enhance the ability to hear speech in challenging listening environments by strengthening auditory memory and the representation of important acoustic features.

Read more here!

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 3:40 PM | Permalink