This year will be the start of a doctoral study to be performed at Södra Älvsborgs Sjukhus in Borås, Sweden in an ICU patient room ICU patient room The aim of the project is to study if a holistically designed patient room in a general intensive care unit affects (supports the well-being of) the occupants […]
Huge media attention in Sweden for report on sound environment
Every other in Sweden is disturbed by Noise! According to a recent report, noise is a major problem at work. Almost every employee is affected, says the president of Hörselskadades (Hearing impaired) Association (HRF), who commissioned the report. “The problem with the sound environment is everywhere – even in school and at cafes for example. […]
Test codes for sound absorption measurements
Nils-Åke Andersson CEN/TC 126, Building acoustics, has created a working group, WG 11, to develop Test Codes for suspended, acoustic ceilings. WG 11 started its work about a year ago with Nils-Åke Andersson from Saint-Gobain Ecophon as convener and has now about 15 participants from around Europe. The reason doing this work is the problems […]
Reverberation Time is not enough….
Monika Rychtarikova Shortly after her presentation, Monika Rychtarikova was interviewed by Marielle Klijn. The title of her presentation was: “speech transmission index and articulation index in the context of open plan offices“. One of the conclusions of her session is that reverberation time is not an adequate quantity to fully describe the acoustical comfort. Please […]
Ecophon Healthcare conference
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 […]
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 […]
Acoustics in call centres – still a hot topic in France
Ill. Logica Call Centre, Bridgend, UK A lot has been written about working conditions in call centres and other customer contact centres, but actually very little about acoustics. Apart from the fact that they are noisy and that employees tend to suffer from noise exposure similar to that of industry workers. That is why, the […]
Less noise – less need for pain medication
Noise can make it more difficult to cope with pain. A nursing study performed by Barbra Blake Minckley showed that twice the number of patients were administrated pain medication when noise levels were “High” compared with “Low” or “Middle”. Even quite moderate noise levels can potentially disturb the process of caring for the patient. She […]
Noise inside incubators – quietest hour 49 dB(A)!
A recent study “Noise exposure in a neonatogical care unit and in incubators” demonstrated a far from ideal environment for neonates inside incubators. The noise exposure of premature infants in incubators is determined by the noise situation in the neonatal care unit. And on the other hand the acoustical properties of the incubator, which should […]
