Ecophon Healthcare conference Approximately 60 people attended the Ecophon Healthcare Conference on 9th September 2009 at The King’s Fund HO in London. Host for the day, Anthony Thomas, concept developer at Ecophon UK, brought together an appealing range of topics specifically aiming to support a good design of our Healthcare premises. Prominent speakers were among […]
research
Zebrafish might save human hearing!
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. A […]
Acoustics in Healthcare at the IOA conference
Acoustics in Healthcare Environments On Tuesday, June 16th around 50 delegates participated in a conference in Manchester called “Acoustics in Healthcare Environments”. The conference, organized by the Institute of Acoustics in the UK, was hosted by Adrian Popplewell, Ramboll UK. Seven papers were presented during the day. One of the speakers, Anthony Thomas of Ecophon […]
Open-plan offices – An intervention study
The increased number of people working in open-plan offices has revealed the lack of knowledge regarding how to design an acoustical environment that’s supporting the activities going on there. Challenges in open-plan office design are to create an environment both for concentration and communication without disturbances between different working groups. In a Nordic Innovation Centre […]
Swedish study on hearing impairment and tinnitus among school staff
This investigation show an increased occurrence of hearing impairment among school and preschool (kindergarten) staff. Since the noise exposure in schools is indeed high, it seems important to decease sound levels in Swedish schools. (Summary in Swedish) (another summary in Swedish) The goal with this investigation (Carl Hogstedt, Greta Smedje, Robert Wålinder, Akademiska Hospital, Uppsala, […]
Patients risk sleep problems from noise in Critical Care units
Critical care unit (CCU) noise may put patients at risk of sleep problems The study, by M Topf and M Bookman at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, says that technological advances in CCUs are contributing to this problem and that the results provide support for the hypothesis that critical care unit sound levels […]
The Essex School Study – optimum classroom acoustics
The Essex study ran for 5 months during the academic year 2007/8 during which period classrooms were repeatedly modified acoustically. Many objective and subjective measures were obtained and initial findings have been described as ‘very powerful’! Multiple perspectives are always important when considering the impact of the acoustic environment on a system as complicated as […]
Take acoustic design more seriously
Acoustic environment in Finnish offices, the summary of questionnaire studies Riikka Helenius, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health The result from a recent office study including 8 Finnish offices were presented. The acoustical conditions of the 8 offices represented typical Finnish offices. Noise and thermal conditions were experienced as the most disturbing work environment factors. The […]
Highly intelligible background speech of 55 dB(A) impairs cognitive performance
Reported live from ICA Madrid Sabine Schlittmeier Sabine Schlittmeier, psychologist at Eichstätt University in Germany, presented her paper called Background speech varying in intelligibility – Effects on coginitive perfromance and perceived disturbance. Sabine presented three experiments, which tested the impact of background speech varying in intelligibility and/or level on basic cognitive functions (verbal short-term memory, […]
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 […]
