In December 2006 the Danish National Institute for Occupational Health published the result of a large study of the working environment in Danish workplaces. More than 9.000 people participated in the research (NAK) and it was discovered that noise and poor acoustics is perceived as a serious problem. This is one of the reasons why […]
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Good acoustics with Wall Panels
As a complement to an acoustic ceiling it is sometimes useful to attach absorbing panels to the walls. This could be the case when a disturbing flutter echo is present or expected and gives an unpleasant coloration to the sound. Another situation is when the amount of sound diffusing objects is small, resulting in long […]
Background to the European Standard EN 12354, part 6
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 […]
Short overview of acoustic building performance standards
More and more, acoustical performance of buildings is described in standards and norms. These are useful documents for expressing requirements and expectations regarding the acoustics. Here is a short overview, gathering standards addressing single building types as well as more general standards (in order of publication). All of them are available in English (original or […]
“Change focus – noise is not a killer”
Reported live from Ecophon 5th International Acousticians’ Seminar Søren Peter Lund, Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Occupational Health in Denmark, was the keynote speaker at the seminar. He started talking about the growing concern about noise in the society, showing a model that basically treats noise as a toxic compound. Lund’s view on […]
Room acoustics tool added to Finnish Standard SFS 5907
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 […]
European Directive bans excessive reverberant noise
The European Directive on Construction Protection against noise applies to all buildings occupied by people. A specific paragraph addresses Reverberant Noise and how to handle it. Intesting is the use of equivalent absorption area. extract from the Directive below: Protection against excessive reverberant noise “The noise within a room is a function, on the one […]
Room acoustics developments pointed out at Euronoise last week
The Euronoise room acoustics session included 7 lectures last wek in Tampere (Finland). Important developments are taking place in that field. Promising! Highlights from the session – Rooms with ceiling treatment are not diffuse. Traditional, Sabine based relationships between reverberation time and sound pressure level do not apply. New calculations methods are needed, taking into […]
Breakthroughs in standardisation in Nordic countries
Nordic requirements and recommendations for acoustic conditions in buildings is a review document (in Swedish) It provides a snapshot of the situation in the begenning of the 2000’es in the Nordic countries and reflects the large efforts put since then to create and improve standards for building performance. A large part of the documents quoted […]
Reverberation time vs. amount of absorption in DIN 18041
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 […]
