When we are sick just opening the door to a hospital takes us out of our comfort zone. Our system is already stressed and our senses are therefore alert. We are more sensitive to sound and noise than normal – and in healthcare sound environments, this can be a challenge. Sleep is essential Patients are […]
Speech
Speech intelligibility and public sound systems
There’s an important difference between music and speech. The brain is capable of “filling in” a fair amount of missing information in music. There’s a high degree of predictability. Generally while hearing music, if you didn’t get the bass line or some part of the song which you are keen on listening in the first […]
Acoustic research in care of the elderly
Scientists are currently investigating the role of acoustics in the care of the elderly, under the leadership of Nicole van Hout. She is co-owner of Level Acoustics and is participating in a major research project entitled “Life enrichment care. Building physics interventions for the well-being of frail elderly.” The project aims to enhance physical environmental […]
The Sound of Democracy TEDx
We know that the quality of the sound environment can have a significant impact on the quality of speech communication however in this TEDx Julian Treasure focuses on the need for conscious listening which is an underestimated skill. Balancing the communication outputs (writing and speaking) with the inputs (reading and listening) needs to happen but […]
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 […]
Noise in the Neonatal Intensive Care unit (NICU)
In “Challenging Designs of Neonatal Intensive Care Units“, Anne Marie Dazé Floyd, RN, MSN, CNS says: “A link has been established between exposure to constant room noise and loss in frequency and pattern discrimination essential to understanding the spoken word. Loss of the ability to discriminate speech can cause profound developmental delay by interfering with […]
