Here, some reflections, impressions and facts from Maastricht and Euronoise 2015 – the 10th European Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. http://www.euronoise2015.eu/
Acousticians and noise experts from countries all over the world gathered for the event on noise control, and soundscape, organised by the European Acoustics Association.
Maastricht (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maastricht) in the very south of Netherlands, in the province of Limburg, is a really nice and beautiful town close to Belgium and Germany. I arrived during the Sunday evening and the city centre was full of young people. I could hear loud dance music and followed the acoustic stimuli through the winding historical streets, and finally ended up at the main square where there was a huge open air dance party – a warm and acoustically loud welcome to Maastricht.
The weather was rather cold and windy this Sunday, and this was clearly confirmed by two Brazilian acousticians with bikes. “Hello Carsten”, they shouted. Really nice to see them here, so far away from their warm continent. “Is this weather normal?”, they asked, all wrapped up in warm scarfs and wind jackets. Well………..
As usual Ecophon was rather present at this major acoustic event; sponsorship, exhibition booth and five conference papers and a poster session was delivered. Moreover, we supported the meeting with young acousticians, the future of acoustics.
Ecophon presentations were:
Gerd Marbjerg
Comparing a Phased Combination of Acoustical Radiosity and the Image Source Method with Other Simulation Tools by G. Marbjerg, J. Brunskog, C.-H. Jeong, E. Nilsson.
Colin Campbell
The Challenge of Meeting both Acoustic and Thermal Comfort in 21st Century School Classrooms by C. Campbell, H. Brokmann, E. Nilsson.
Jonas Christensson
Speech intelligibility in Swedish forests by J. Christensson.
Frans Davidsson
Effect of Variation in Noise Absorption in Open-plan Office: a Field Study with a Cross-Over Design by F. Davidsson.
Yoann Le-Muet
Acoustics of open spaces – toward a new French standard by Y. Le Muet, P. Chevret.
You can reach the programme book here: http://www.euronoise2015.eu/program_book-25-5-2015.pdf
Professor. dr. Karin Bijsterveld from Maastricht University delivered a fantastic opening keynote speech, guiding us through the modern history of cars, acoustics and car radios. Why have we transformed the car to our listening booth? She referred to a newly released book by the name: Sound and Safe: A History of Listening Behind the Wheel (http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199925698.do) by the following authors: Karin Bijsterveld, Eefje Cleophas, Stefan Krebs and Gijs Mom.
On the whole it was a fantastic Euronoise 2015, with many great lectures, meeting old and new acquaintances, absorbing new knowledge and being exposed to the opportunity to be active on twitter. Feel free to follow me at any time: @AcousticCarsten
