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...

Continue reading "Huge media attention in Sweden for report on sound environment" »

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.

Continue reading "Study shows that musicians are better in distinguishing sounds in background noise" »

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 3:40 PM | Permalink

Children spend at least 45% of the school day in schools listening! The average hearing loss with middle ear infection is 30 dB. 90% of very young children´s knowledge is connected to hearing conversations around them! These are some relevant facts, but also advice, which you can find at the website of Illinois State University if you go straight to this pdf!

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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

Continue reading "New book on modern sounds!" »

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

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.

Continue reading "Zebrafish might save human hearing!" »

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.

Continue reading "“Noise movie” – a way to visualise noise in the community" »

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 10:33 AM | Permalink

Since the number of editors of Accoustic Bulletin has grown over the years, it might be a good time to introduce them to the readers.

Please click here to find your (local) contacts

Posted by Marc Janssen at 5:12 PM | Permalink

Source image: Dynamic Architecture

Yesterday, one of my colleagues, forwarded a news item on BBC news. Although it has not much to do with acoustics, it is worth mentioning.
Italian architect David Fisher designed the world's first moving building, an 80-storey tower with revolving floors giving a shifting shape. The 420-metre (1,378-foot) building's apartments would spin a full 360 degrees, at voice command, around a central column by means of 79 giant power-generating wind turbines located between each floor.

Click here to see the animation about the first building that rotates, moves, and changes shape

Continue reading "Can the sound of a voice move a skyscraper?" »

Posted by Marc Janssen at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Earlier this year the founder of the “elevator music”, Muzak, went bankrupt! But the business of background music, making you shop more, is still successful.

Continue reading "Shopping music – influencing you either you like it or not!" »

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Building Acoustics Group of the UK's Institute of Acoustics has organised a meeting in Manchester on 16th June 2009. Entitled "Acoustics in Healthcare Environments", it will be held at the Victioria & Albert Hotel, and will discuss Key Issues relating to exactly how environmental acoustics affect healthcare outcomes.

Continue reading "I.O.A. TO HOLD "ACOUSTICS IN HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENTS" MEETING, in JUNE 2009" »

Posted by Anthony Thomas at 1:04 PM | Permalink

Noise Action Week in the UK aims to raise awareness about the health effects such as stress, excessive noise can cause for us all.

During Noise Action Week hundreds of organisations involved in managing noise across the UK, including local authority noise, housing, health teams, antisocial behaviour teams, housing organisations, mediation services, schools and others, coordinate events at local level to educate and inform people about noise, the impact it has and how to reduce it.
http://www.environmental-protection.org.uk/noiseactionweek/
The Institute of Acoustics is a sponsor for the week
http://www.ioa.org.uk/

Continue reading "Noise Action Week (UK) 18-22 May 2009" »

Posted by Colin Campbell at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

When looking for a thorough overview of the research on how noise affects people I always still refer to the document “Community Noise” prepared for the World health Organisation (WHO). It used to be a book, but has for many years existed on the web as well. Here you can find the documentation edited by Birgitta Berglund , Thomas Lindvall and Dietrich H Schwela.

Guidelines for Community Noise

Noise and health - WHO

WHO

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Costas Karageorghis is a jazz musician, a former athlete and researcher. He has been involved in music and sports since some 20 years. Costas performed several studies revealing that music can enhance your performance when training. What matters is the beat of the song! The relationship between heart rate and music preference is key to maximising the psychological benefits of music.

Continue reading "Let the beat of the music maximise your training" »

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 3:16 PM | Permalink

Changed flight paths affected health! Noise of the laundry machines disturbed the whole block! Offices workers in an open-plan solution with constant sound exposure from machinery, phones and office chatter had higher levels of adrenaline than workers in a more quiet environment! Noise influence health and wellbeing, and this is being more and more highlighted in life style media and news. Read more here!

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Most of the reviews of cafés and restaurants focus on the food and services and sometimes on the atmosphere. Unfortunately they seldom mention the sound/noise levels and acoustic experience. The New Zealand Acoustical Society has created a rating sheet and the results are available on-line. Read more here

Rating list
Rating sheet to be filled in

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Birmingham Women's Hospital NHS Trust took part in a regional campaign to raise awareness of noise levels in Neonatal Units and the need to reduce them. Lead by Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Cheryl Lewis, the campaign highlighted the impact noise can have on babies, and included staff training, posters and badges, and the use of a Decibel Monitor in the Unit.

Neonatal Units can be very noisy places, with the amount of medical equipment, alarms, telephones and people's voices, and this can impact upon the babies' development.

Continue reading "Campaign to reduce noise in Neonatal Units" »

Posted by Anthony Thomas at 2:16 PM | Permalink

ANSWER: At least, adding absorption to a room will help to prevent tinnitus.
Scientists from the California Ear Institute in San Ramon, California have discovered a potential cure for some instances of tinnitus in the nerve agent Botox. One in four tinnitus patients in a study experienced improvement in their symptoms following treatment with Botox, 16 reported no change and three said their tinnitus had become worse.

Of course preventing Tinnitus should be priority number one. Applying stricter acoustic demands will benefit the ones suffering from Tinnitus and will support to prevent tinnitus. Effiicient absorbing ceiling panels and wall panels will support the decrease of sound pressure levels.

Read more about the tests

Posted by Per Larsen at 1:04 PM | Permalink

Voice is a basic tool for teachers. Chronic voice disorders, very common among teaching staff, cause long term sick leaves or leaving the job for good (for other profession or for disability pension). In Poland, chronic voice disorders as a group of diseases are formally recognized as occupational disease. In 2007, officially confirmed voice disorders cases were the biggest group (24,4%) of all occupational diseases in Poland

Continue reading "VOICE DISORDERS AMONG TEACHERS AS AN OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE" »

Posted by Mikołaj Jarosz at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Audio Spotlight is a revolutionary new audio technology developed by dr. Joseph Pompei, that creates sound in a narrow beam, just like light. Aim the flat, thin speaker disc to your desired listening area, and provide all of the sound — with none of the noise. Image the possibilities!

Continue reading "PUT SOUND WHERE YOU WANT IT!" »

Posted by Marc Janssen at 7:30 AM | Permalink

Four architecture students from KTH in Stockholm received the first price at the the Future Workplace contest. Their proposal called “Absorbing Transparency” convinced the jury.

High demands on acoustics
They choose to create a room structure with high acoustic features to secure that transparency does not lead to an increase of soundlevels. The focus is on creating a mentally relaxing environment, both visually as well as acoustically. The design should provide the activities that are sensitive to or generate noise to be limited by the room interior.

Continue reading "ABSORBING TRANSPARENCY - A WINNING THEME" »

Posted by Marc Janssen at 2:45 PM | Permalink

Rock music really is getting louder and record companies are using digital technology to turn the volume on CDs up! Sound levels are being artificially enhanced so that the music punches through when it competes against background noise in pubs or cars. Read more here!

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 1:46 PM | Permalink

Scientists from the University of Sheffield in United Kingdom suggest there is a link between an area's daytime noise levels and the number of birds singing at night. Read more here!

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The company Digital Recordings offers a variety of hearing test products. Test it yourself, the only you need is a computer and a pair of headphones or earphones. Free software is avalable at http://www.digital-recordings.com/hearing-test/ht-products.html

Posted by Nils-Åke Andersson at 4:00 PM | Permalink

ECOTECT v5. is now launched.

Illustration: Square 1/ECOTECT

The software is developed by Square 1. It has been existing for some years but will be from this version more actively commercialised.

Continue reading "ECOTECT - Acoustic analysis and visualisation software" »

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)

Attended the IOA conference “Futures in Acoustics: Today’s research – Tomorrow’s careers” a couple of weeks ago. Prof. Mike Barron (University of Bath) lectured on ‘The development of concert hall design – a 111 year experience’.

Continue reading "1 dB makes a difference!" »

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

Promenade 'around the cochlea is a collective resource hosted by the University of Montpellier in France. Impressive pictures and lots of illustrations.

Must be seen!

Continue reading "Ear and hearing explained and illustrated" »

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 4:34 PM | Permalink

The acoustic treatment of the Henriksberg pub and restaurant won a prize for best practice at European Noise at Work Summit, 12 December 2005. Watch the video of the presentation.

View the Ecophon solution for the project (NB: different conditions might require adjustments of the solution. We recommend to involve an acoustics consultant)

Continue reading "Challenging acoustics in music clubs" »

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

Space is not only visual. For acoustician B. Delage, space can be seen as an interaction of both an acoustical and a visual dimension. In this article, he develops his approach around an architectural icon, the Kidosaki House, by Tadao Ando: a good example of how sounds in architecture can touch and provoke us.

Read the article
Author: B. Delage, www.viasonora.com
Publication: Earshot, # 3, UK, 2002

Posted by Fredrik at 3:48 PM | Permalink

Intrusive sounds, noise, make us tired and irritable. It has a negative effect on our performance, especially when working on tasks that depend on short-term memory. Noise in the office has a negative impact in three ways ... read more

Posted by at 11:28 PM | Permalink

If you want to not only read about reverberation time, but also listen.

Try it!

Posted by at 11:23 PM | Permalink

The dictionary has been collected by the Swiss Acoustical Society and now resides on the web page of the European Acoustics Association. The entries can be sorted by mouse click on the language in the table header.
http://www.european-acoustics.org/AD/

Posted by Fredrik at 1:37 PM | Permalink

Ingemansson Technology AB acquires all shares in Brekke&Strand Akustikk AS to form the largest group of expertise in Acoustics and Vibration in Europe.

The Swedish based company Ingemansson Technology AB has 100 employees and close to 50 years of experience as expert engineering consultants in acoustics with a wide range of customers in Scandinavia, Europe and across the world. Brekke&Strand AS is the leading Norwegian acoustics consultancy with 20 experienced acoustic engineers. Ingemansson has also launched a joint venture operation in France, whereby it will be better prepared to offer its services and competence to a wider range of customers.
For more information: http://www.bs-akustikk.no/ or http://www.ingemansson.com/

Posted by Fredrik at 1:40 PM | Permalink

Sonoises is an experimental web site, proposing new layouts between image and sound. Explore this unusual soundscape by "walking around" the four interactive sessions!

Continue reading "Sonoises - an acoustic retreat" »

Posted by Fredrik at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)