Ecophon Acoustic Bulletin

A new book on acoustics was just released – spaces speak, are you listening? Its authors are Barry Blesser (former Professor at MIT and a founder of digital audio) and Linda-Ruth Salter (independent scholar). The authors are bringing together humanistic, technical and aesthetic considerations of aural architecture with an interdisciplinary approach. Areas touch upon are architecture, music, acoustics, evolution, anthropology, cognitive psychology, audio engineering and so on. You can read about and purchased the book here.

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 11:42 AM
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A new book on acoustics was just released – spaces speak, are you listening? Its authors are Barry Blesser (former Professor at MIT and a founder of digital audio) and Linda-Ruth Salter (independent scholar). The authors are bringing together humanistic, technical and aesthetic considerations of aural architecture with an interdisciplinary approach. Areas touch upon are architecture, music, acoustics, evolution, anthropology, cognitive psychology, audio engineering and so on. You can read about and purchased the book here.

Posted by Carsten Svensson at 11:42 AM
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In a recent Swedish study, Christina Danielsson from KTH, examines how different office layouts affect health & job satisfaction. 491 office employees from twenty-six companies participated in the study. The socalled "flexi-offices" and cellular offices got the most positive ratings from the employees. The large & medium sized open offices were caracterised as the "worst" office types - mainly because of poor supporting facilities like meeting & silent rooms where the employees can seek privacy and room for concentration.
Read the full report here

Posted by Björn Berthelsen at 3:37 PM
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In the latest issue of Acta Acoustica united with Acustica, Eddy Gerritsen (TNO) discusses engineering methods for the prediction of reverberation time and sound pressure levels in spaces with non-diffuse conditions. The assumptions and theoretical considerations behind the formulas in EN 12354-6 annex D are clarified.

There is definitely a need for engineering models to estimate reverberation time and sound levels in this large group of rooms where the acoustical treatment consist of an absorbent ceiling. The discrepancy between Sabine calculations and measurements in e.g. classrooms, offices, day-care centres among others, are well documented. So, if you are interested in this matter I recommend you to read the article.
The abstract is available here.

Posted by Erling Nilsson at 2:24 PM
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According to Michael Brill (see ref. below), founder of the North American workplace consultancy firm Bosti, the cellular (private) office layout encourages communication, compared to the traditional cubicle (open plan) layout.

Continue reading "Can cellular offices be more fit for communication?" »

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 9:02 PM
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Acoustical Society of America provides since some years useful literature for classroom acoustic design.

Particularly, the Classroom Acoustics booklet is meant as "an aid in the understanding of the elements of desirable listening conditions in classrooms" (whole content available below cover page picture)

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 12:03 PM
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Noise reduction in day-care centres by reducing reverberation time: Analyses and case studies is a study conducted on behalf of the Canadian IRSST. The aim of the study is to:
- examine the effects of acoustic materials and their impact on noise reduction and reverberation time.
- give concrete examples of noise reduction obtained through using acoustic treatments in day-care centres;
- develop a simple method in order to assess potential noise reductions by using acoustical treatments.

Continue reading "Noise reduction by reducing reverberation time in day-care centres" »

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 8:39 AM
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German Standard DIN 18041 "Acoustical quality in small to medium-sized rooms", previously addressed here is now available in English.

Purchase DIN 18041

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 5:09 PM
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"Don't limit your senses - sound and the learning environment" is now available in an upgraded German version, entitled "Mit allen Sinnen lernen : akustische Ergonomie in. Bildungsstätten".
ISBN 91-974193-4-6 and ISBN 978-91-974193-4-5

"Don't limit your senses" has been recognised over the years as one of the few comprehensive sources of information on acoustics in learning environments. Among others, it is referred to by several public authorities and government bodies throughout the world.

Continue reading "Comprehensive piece of literature on acoustics for educational premises now available in German" »

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 10:19 PM
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The classroom acoustics session at Euronoise consisted of 9 lectures on the 31st of May. Classroom acoustics was confirmed as a vivid area at the crossroad of room acoustics and occupational health.

Continue reading "Increasing awareness of noise levels in educational premises at Euronoise in Tampere" »

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 9:46 AM
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“It seems likely that improved acoustic conditions reduce risks of conflicts and errors.”
This is just one of the main messages from the research made in a coronary care unit in Sweden.

The study points out the importance of further research on possible effects of acoustics in healthcare on staff turnover, quality of patient care, and medical errors.

Acoustic measurements have been performed by Ingemansson Technology AB. This study was partly funded by Ecophon.

Continue reading "Improved acoustics reduce risks in Healthcare premises" »

Posted by Marc Janssen at 11:35 AM
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Roger Ulrich, an authority in healthcare design, was recently interviewed on the issue of hospital noise by the news agency AP. Ulrich is professor of architecture at Texas A&M University and visiting professor at University College in London. In that interview, he highlights the seriousness of this question by referring to a major study on the topics previously addressed here.

"Hospital noise levels are far too high internationally and this has been known for decades"

Continue reading "CNN and AP quotes Ecophon study on acoustics in healthcare premises" »

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 9:59 PM
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Classrooms should be designed for modern teaching styles. In a study supported by the Oticon foundation published 2002, a research team from New Zealand looks at the acoustic implications of new teaching styles, where interaction between children is encouraged besides more traditional teaching.

More and more learning is done in small groups and a high emphasis is put on incidental learning, defined as what children learn from each other through gathering information casually. This asks for classrooms that are at least as much designed to maintain low ambient speech levels as to transmit the teacher’s speech from the blackboard to the pupils’ positions.

Continue reading "Teaching styles put new requirements on classrooms" »

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 9:15 AM
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World Health Organization - Guidelines for Community Noise is a systematic review of scientific evidence regarding noise, annoyance, speech and hearing impairment. The document provides also relevant guideline values.

Continue reading "Looking for criteria?" »

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 3:29 PM
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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".

EN SE

Posted by Pierre Chigot at 10:04 PM
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Mainstream media is more often reporting on the challenges of working in an open plan office. Danish newspapers and building industry periodicals address the problem by interviewing Bjørn Berthelsen from Ecophon Denmark.
Read the article

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Posted by Fredrik at 3:46 PM
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The relation between reverberation time and the physical properties of the enclosure boundaries has involved many acousticians over the years and this paper by Jie Pan from the University of Western Australia takes a close look at this.

Read abstract and/or purchase the paper at: IngentaConnect >>

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Posted by at 11:32 PM
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