IOA Spring conference – Teachers voice strain and going beyond Reverberation Time

From last months IOA Spring Conference, Jack Harvie-Clark (photo above) of Apex Acoustics discussed his recent investigations into the potential advantages of sound strength “G” and speech clarity “C50” measurements when compared to reverberation time as measurements of classroom acoustics. Also interviewed is Nick Durup of Sharps Redmore and London South Bank University, who discusses the initial findings of his PhD pilot study investigating teachers vocal strain in classrooms.

During the IOA (Institute of Acoustics) Spring Conference in the UK, Shane Cryer, Concept Developer for educational premises caught up with Jack and Nick around the sessions.
Click here to watch Jack discussing the implications of measuring “C50” and “G” in a classroom over the most frequently measured and default Reverberation Time. How RT alone can misinterperate the acoustic response of the room and by measuring “G” and C50″ you can have a better understanding of the loudness and speech clarity in a classroom.
Click here to watch Nick discuss the initial findings of his PhD investigating teachers vocal strain in classrooms. In this ongoing pilot study Nick is looking at the possible links with the vocal load on teachers and the the physical acoustics in the classroom. He hopes to look at ways to tweak or modify the classroom acoustics to reduce the load based on the teachers voice, to limit the vocal strain that might result. Anecdotally there is a correlation between, poor acoustics, noise and reverberance and to explore how hard you have to work to speak in those conditions. It is too early for any results so far and Nick is looking into the measurement techniques and methodology for the study.