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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!
Dutch sports teachers (PE teachers) sued their employers for suffering serious hearing impairment because of working in a poor acoustic environment. The schools that employed the PE teachers compensate the teachers financially.
The Dutch Royal Society of Physical Exercise Teachers (KVLO) http://www.kvlo.nl/ supports the teachers in this matter.
Continue reading "Poor room acoustics impairs sport teachers´ hearing" »
Over a million votes were cast worldwide in an online science experiment. University of Salford in UK and Professor Trevor Cox analysed the results of public perceptions of unpleasant sounds.
A study on acoustic ergonomics of schools was recently published by the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Dortmund/Berlin/Dresden) in Germany. It covers room acoustics of schools, teaching styles, teachers’ health and pupil behaviour. Results show that room acoustic improvements leads to better working conditions, sound pressure levels decreases, pupils’ social behaviour becomes calmer, teachers experience a lower load and noise/sound level sensitivity.
The study was conducted by Dr. Markus Oberdörster and Dr. Gerhart Tiesler, under the umbrella of the Institute for interdisciplinary school research of the University of Bremen. Its original name is “Akustische Ergonomie der Schule” and an English translation (2006) is now available.
This study can be purchased at (www.baua.de) (direct link: http://www.baua.de/nn_8514/de/Publikationen/Forschungsberichte/2006/Fb1071e.html__nnn=true) or a condensed version can be downloaded as a pdf here (Download file">Modern School Acoustics - English)
For information contact: carsten.svensson@ecophon.se
Annex H is now added to the original version of the Finnish Standard SFS 5907, previously described in Ecophon Acoustic Bulletin and initially published 2004.
Annex H is informative and estimates the amount of Class A resp. Class C absorption material needed, as a percentage of the surface area of the space, with respect to various heights and reverberation times.
Continue reading "Room acoustics tool added to Finnish Standard SFS 5907" »
B. Bozzetto has produced plenty of animated shorts on various subjects.
Ill. Bruno Bozetto
This animated short film is dedicated to noise in residential premises.
Hopefully, it doesn’t have to end that way!
In 1999, acoustics expertise (incl. Delta and Carl Bro) was contacted to evaluate, measure and simulate the acoustics of the glass-roofed Sculpture Street at the New Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Continue reading "From 11 to 3 s - extreme reverberation control" »
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" »
Ecophon interacts daily with acoustic consultants throughout the world. To further enhance this collaboration Ecophon will arrange a 5th International Acousticians' Seminar in Helsingborg in Sweden at the end of September 2006. The theme of the seminar will be “Innovations in room acoustics”.
Continue reading "Ecophon 5th International Acousticians' Seminar" »
German Standard DIN 18041 "Acoustical quality in small to medium-sized rooms" includes a table called “Guideline values for the free ceiling and wall surface areas to be covered with sound absorbers as a multiple of the room basic area (…)”. The table Download file presents for different room types the amount of sound absorbers to be used depending on their sound absorption performance (expressed as αw).
I asked two questions to Bernd Kunzmann, Chairman of the DIN Technical Committee responsible for the writing of DIN 18041.
The answers confirm that reduction of sound pressure level is at least as important as reverberation time as a room acoustic descriptor.
Continue reading "Reverberation time vs. amount of absorption in DIN 18041" »
This text is a short version of a student work completed by Malin Hultmark, architecture student at Chalmers University of Technology. As an internship, Malin created several building case studies of projects involving Ecophon solutions (example: DNRA office, DK). The numerous interviews made under that internship, together with extensive reading on acoustics and architecture inpired the text, asking for more "seeing acousticians and listening architects".
