Ecophon Acoustic Bulletin

This Acoustics in TABS Classrooms Seminar on Thursday 27th June, will be held at the Saint-Gobain Innovation Centre in London. Thermally Active Building Systems (or TABS) which utilise exposed thermal mass for temperature stabilisation are increasing as an educational building type due to energy efficiency and potential reduced running costs. However TABS buildings have specific acoustic challenges with potential increased low frequency reverberance and overall sound levels within the classroom, making learning difficult, and potentially limiting academic achievement.

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By Colin Campbell at 10:50 AM
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Paige Hodsman, Concept Developer Office UK, discusses with John Hanlon about the importance of productivity, how acoustic is linked to it, and where the responsibilities should be. John was a speaker at the conference and held a session on May 23rd called "How the Facility Manager can influence Workplace Productivity"

Continue reading "John Hanlon Interview at EFMC 2013" »

By Ricardo Canto Leyton at 12:16 PM
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A round table discussion called "Enhance the workplace with Activity Based Acoustic Design" was held at the European facility management conference in Prague on May 23rd. Topics discussed were the need to see acoustic design as an enhancer of the activity provided by the workplace; standards available, such as the ISO3382-3; R&D on the impact of acoustics on people. Finally, the benefit on the business, thanks to less time lost via unnecessary acoustic interruptions was higlighted and discussed.

Continue reading "Acoustic Design discussed at the EFMC 2013" »

By Ricardo Canto Leyton at 1:10 PM
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On july 2nd 2013, a full day to discuss office acoustics will be held in Paris. The event is organized by the Centre d’Information et de Documentation sur le Bruit (CIDB) and the Vie Quotidienne et Audition (VQA ). The forum aims to shed light on acoustic issues in offices and is a great opportunity to exchange knowledge and experiences. Participants will also be able to experiment solutions available to improve the soundscape and office communication.

For more info about the event and registration info read here

By Ricardo Canto Leyton at 9:02 AM
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An entertaining short film has been made to coincide with Noise Awareness Week 20- 25th May 2013 in the UK. Watch the film which highlights noise issues and behavoiur in the home here.

Continue reading "School kids show the way to mediating noise disputes" »

By Colin Campbell at 12:34 PM
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A 90-second daily show highlighting the songs of British birds has been played early on BBC Radio 4 this week. But birdsong isn't just beautiful to listen to, it is increasingly being used in innovative ways due to the positive response people have in certain activity conditions like; during homework, a post meal slump, where people have a fear of needles, around transport and also for general business.

Continue reading "The suprising and innovative uses for birdsong " »

By Colin Campbell at 5:54 PM
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This recently published BIAMP Sytems Whitepaper calls for acoustics to be given much greater consideration by building designers and engineers, policymakers, public service administrators, business leaders and property investors. Supported by The Sound Agency Julian Treasure writes how it pushes for a truly integrated approach to sound.

Continue reading ""Building in Sound" Whitepaper pushes for integrated approach to sound" »

By Colin Campbell at 2:30 PM
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The Lund University Sound Environment Center hosted the "Noise and disease" symposium in Lund, which featured presentations background and present status of noise research (see more info here). Sara Holmqvist, concept developer and Acoustic Bulletin editor took the opportunity to talk to key note speaker Dr Wolfgang Babisch about his research from the early stages in his career, where we are today and where we are heading in noise research in the future. To see the interview please click on the image or here

Continue reading "Interview with Wolfgang Babisch" »

By Sara Holmqvist at 10:09 AM
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Should we just accept that it takes 20 metres for the sound level of someone’s voice to drop to a comfortable non-distracting level, or should we reduce this to 10 metres so that workgroup-to-workgroup distractions are minimized?

In the Nordic Innovation report “Acoustic design of open-plan offices” , it was found that in a Swedish call centre, when reducing the distance for the sound to drop from 60 to 40 dBA from more than 16m before acoustic refurbishment to less than 4m thereafter, the proportion of people rating their acoustical environment as “bad” was reduced from 40% to 10%, and the proportion rating it as “good” increased from 20% to 60%.

Continue reading "How far do you speak in the office?" »

By Ricardo Canto Leyton at 12:07 PM
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An interesting article featured on Swedish radio website recently saying poor acoustics in school premises can lead to poor results. It highlights that students with non native language backgrounds do worse in school which may be partly due to poor acoustics in classrooms. Research shows that it is more difficult to perceive all sounds in a language that don’t belong to one’s mother tongue.

Continue reading "Better acoustics required for non-native language speakers" »

By Colin Campbell at 4:21 PM
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The latest newsletter is now available online. Click here or use the newsletter archive on the right menu to read it. This newsletter was sent out on Thursday March 26th to all our subscribers. Subcribe today to stay fully updated.

By Ricardo Canto Leyton at 6:53 PM
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A survey of 2000 workers in the UK has revealed that people find difficulties concentrating and are not satisfied with their privacy. Almost 80% of those surveyed work in open plan or shared offices. When asked what they thought about the current acoustic environment in their office, more than half of respondents (54%) said working in an open-plan workspace sometimes makes it difficult for them to concentrate and do their job.

Continue reading "Office workers react to acoustics in new survey" »

By Ricardo Canto Leyton at 2:50 PM
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Acoustic Bulletin would like to highlight a symposium on noise and disease arranged by the Sound Environment Center at Lund University on 12 april 2013.

Continue reading "Noise and disease symposium - what we know and what we need to know" »

By Sara Holmqvist at 1:29 PM
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Mikolaj Jarosz, Concept Developer for educational premises in Poland speaks and demonstrates the dramatic acoustic difference in two similar lecture rooms. After the acoustic refurbishment of one of the lecture rooms at Krakow Technical University (PK) in Poland it is now possible to hear the difference as experienced by EDUnet and captured on a phone during a recent meeting there.

Continue reading "Lecture room acoustic transformation in Poland" »

By Colin Campbell at 4:33 PM
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The conception that critically ill patients are too ill to reflect on their sound environment in the intensive care unit needs to be revised. This was one of the conclusions Swedish researchers made in a qualitative study on patient experiences of their stay in intensive care.

Continue reading "Being ill in the sound intensive ICU" »

By Sara Holmqvist at 10:39 AM
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