How to Sound Like Charlie Brown’s Teacher
Back when I was in grade school, I loved the animated Charlie Brown shows. I have particular memories of the scenes in class where the kids’ teacher would address them: “Wa Wa Wa, Wa, Wa Wa Wa, Wa.” Thinking about it still makes me smile. What a simple scene that helps visualize the point of my topic today. (more)
HIPAA Speech Privacy Acoustics
Standing atop my soapbox and surveying the healthcare land as we know it, I can declare at the top of my lungs, “I have a right to be heard… er, NOT HEARD… wait, wait… I have a right that a reasonable effort has been made to ensure that I won’t be heard!” I apologize for the confusion, and if you bear with me, I’ll show you why it is important to note that my awkward dialog has some relevance here. (more)
Is It Really Sound Proof? Mixed Use Developments
Mixed use developments need to have the proper noise isolation partitions and the proper expectations for tenants. “I can hear their music and their phone ringing; I can even hear them repeat the order!” This comment came from a frustrated condo owner who lived above a sandwich shop in a mixed used condominium development. High density living often crashes with commercial spaces, and usually it is the residential owners that end up frustrated. (more)
Cost Saving Ideas for Industrial Noise Control
“Wow, you guys are expensive”. I’ve heard this once or twice so far in my career. Interestingly, I hear it the most from industrial and manufacturing clients where employee noise exposure is a major issue in their operations. It’s true, the consulting fee can be a little overwhelming at first, however, if you step back and look at the larger picture, you might be surprised how inexpensive the fee can be. (more)
No Oral Privacy at the Doctor’s Office?
Recently, I visited a healthcare facility to talk with them about oral privacy related to HIPAA privacy requirements. As we toured the facility they shared the following story: (more)
Noise Isolation for Church Cry-Rooms
Most parents will tell you that they just wish they could understand why their baby is crying. As cute as babies are, the reality is they can be immensely distracting during church worship services. So what can you do about it? (more)
Restaurant Noise – A Big Deal to Food Critics
Over the years we’ve used this blog to try and get the word out that acoustics can be very important when designing a restaurant and that the assistance of a qualified acoustical consultant during the design phase will save the proprietor both time and money while ensuring the ambience is top notch. So just how important is acoustics in a restaurant? I spent a little time looking around at recent restaurant reviews in Chicago and Detroit to see what I could find… do the critics notice? (more)
In an effort to be inspired, I happen to be writing this blog from my hotel room so it seems perfectly fitting that I write today about Hotel Room Noise Isolation. This is a bit of a tricky topic because there is a whole range of expectations that exist between the one or two star roadside motel and the 4-star hotel that I am currently staying in courtesy of our firm’s thriftiness and a sweet deal from hotwire.com. Of course, nobody checks into a hotel expecting to get a poor night of sleep regardless of the quality or star rating of the establishment. (more)
Student Housing Acoustics – Noise in the Dormitory
Let’s play word association… Ready? Go: Academic… College… University… Higher Education… Acoustics! Did you picture the big wood paneled lecture hall filled with hundreds of students engaged in a lecture about world history, literature, or archeology? Yeah, me too… or at least that what I used to picture. (more)
Are Construction Administration Services Really That Important?
For many of our larger projects, we offer Acoustical Consulting Construction Administration Services as an additional option. Unfortunately, not all clients invest money on this service. Our frustration extends well beyond the revenue side of the project (the CA services are usually a very reasonable addition to the project budget, relative to Design Services). Sometimes our clients opt out of CA services, ending our involvement with the project after a review of the construction drawings and the specifications. We find that many clients view the additional services as non-essential. After all, “all the information is in the drawings and the specifications.” I would completely agree with the sentiment in an ideal world, but experience has shown this world is rarely, if ever, ideal. There are some clients, however, that have welcomed this form of service from our company, and I’d like to share one of their successes. (more)
Anechoic Chambers – What They’re All About
So what in the world are anechoic chambers? In short, they are the consultant’s and manufacturer’s best friend when it comes to acoustics. Anechoic chambers are primarily used for a variety of acoustical measurements that determine just how much noise a product is making. These chambers are most notable for their strange appearance… their foam filled walls, ceilings, and sometimes floors of spikes look a bit like a Nerf torture chamber; if you filled them with plastic balls they’d be a hit attraction at your local Chuck E Cheese. But alas the soft spikes are not meant for harm or play but rather to absorb as much sound as possible, so that you can measure the true sound emitted or reflected off of whatever noise source you are interested in. (more)
Tunnel Vision | Highway Traffic Noise Wall Barriers
On a recent trip to Chicago, my wife and I were thankful for all the new traffic lanes recently completed. I can remember when the trip back home to my folks took an extra couple of hours if I got stuck in all the traffic. But thankfully, with the new highway renovations, we’ve actually had some easy trips with no more traffic backups. Of course, our easy traveling must come at a cost. High density population areas are often encroached upon by the infrastructure needed to support them. In our case, the highways got a lot bigger with more lanes but that meant that they were even closer to the houses and neighborhoods that we drove through. (more)
Hotel Room Noise Isolation = A Good Night’s Rest
Due to the nature of our work and the locations of our clients, we are always traveling. One thing that I’ve noticed in my many years at ABD is that there is a vast difference in the quality of the rooms at any given hotel. When I check in, I have a few requests that I announce long before the desk clerk imprints my key. First, I always ask for a room on the opposite side of the hotel from the highway and second I ask for a room at the end of the hallway. So why are these things important to me? Acoustics, of course! (more)
The 2 Missing Elements of Open Plan Offices: Privacy and Productivity
I used to work at a very large engineering firm that had the “cube farm” open plan office setup (which I referenced in a previous blog). The cubicles were arranged in work groups, and the groups were arranged by clients and market segments. From my desk, the groups to my right and left engineered for a specific client, and the groups in front of and behind me engineered similar products. This open plan office layout scheme made it very easy for the engineers to identify strengths, as well as figure out boundaries, based on the privacy needs each client requested. The ambient noise on the floor was quite low and confidential privacy was difficult to achieve. There was a general din from all the activity, but each of the adjoining groups could pretty clearly hear the other and our work at hand was the only thing that really helped to avoid distraction. (more)
What Do Acoustical Consultants Actually Do?
As an acoustical consultant, I often have trouble answering the “what do you do?” question. The basic answer is quite easy, but unless the person asking the question is an architect, performing artist, or involved in music, they often don’t have a clue what the job entails. I ran into this problem the first time I met my mother-in-law. She genuinely wanted to know and understand what I did for a living, but not being involved in the performing arts or technical sciences made it difficult, and I had a hard time communicating my trade. So what exactly does an acoustical consultant do, anyway? (more)
Space Savers | Acoustical Engineering for Gymnatoriums and Cafetoriums
It certainly isn’t a new idea… How do we maximize our space and minimize our cost without the loss of function? Surely this is the major driver behind ideas like the gymnatorium or the cafetorium. We’ve all seen them, most likely they were in the schools that we attended. They consist of a stage at one end of the room or tucked away in the corner. So, do these budget savers really work like they are supposed to? (more)
My Scarlet Letter | Distractions in the Classroom
At Acoustics By Design we talk a lot about standards. Sometimes, the standards are hidden behind terms like design goals, baseline design, or even ordinances and specifications… But they are all standards. The reality is almost all aspects of our lives are governed by standards; regardless of how well they work or how well we adhere to them, we still use them in decision making. (more)
Closed Office Acoustics and Privacy Concerns
We regularly receive phone calls regarding closed office privacy concerns. The acoustical challenges of an open office environment are manifold, but crosstalk between closed office spaces can be just as distracting. Typically, when these calls come in, we have a standard list of questions that we ask the potential clients about their current environment to try to get an understanding of why they feel they have no privacy between closed offices. (more)
“…You can’t handle the truth!” If you’re a movie fan, then you probably recognize this line from the 1992 blockbuster, A Few Good Men. Of course, Nathan R. Jessep (Jack Nicholson) delivered the line in response to Lt. Daniel Kaffee’s (Tom Cruise) questioning in that tense courtroom scene. But in the real world, what happens when a loud outburst like this takes place…in a Courtroom, in a Judge’s Chambers, or in a Jury Room? How is that sound stopped from transmitting into adjacent rooms and hallways? The unfortunate truth is that in many cases, it’s not. (more)
This past spring I was blessed to be married to an amazing woman who thankfully doesn’t mind when I walk into a business and point out the acoustical flaws and potential improvements that could be made “if they had only hired an acoustical consultant!”
During our engagement, the task of planning for the wedding began, and of course, we visited venues for potential places to hold the reception. In the months leading up to the big day, we attended several weddings and receptions and were on the prowl for good ideas as our wedding neared. (more)
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