Corporate Videoconference Guidelines & Recommendations – Part 2
Good communication can be difficult, especially over long distances. This is why we still get on airplanes and travel to meet face to face. Videoconferencing saves the travel costs, and it still gives us the face to face connection. But here’s the key: the videoconference environment itself is critical to ensuring communication success. Human ability (your eyes and ears) are much more forgiving than technology (cameras and microphones). For example, bad room lighting can automatically be mitigated by a change to your eye’s iris, but video cameras will capture an unusable or poor image. Another example is room noise which can be filtered out by the brain but will be picked up by the microphone and ultimately decrease intelligibility. So here is a list of common “weakest links” for corporate videoconferencing: (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)
HVAC Noise Is Intruding On My Listening
Being a noise engineer, I’m always on the “listen-out” for cases of poor building acoustics. I find that common offenders are noisy air handling (HVAC) systems. Frequently the public venues are restaurants, hotels and cinemas, and on occasion it’s a location most tragic, a performance space. (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)
Naturally Ventilated Buildings and Loud Noisy Acoustics
The LEED® green building certification program gives out points for naturally ventilating buildings, and it also gives out points for acoustics – especially for low levels of background noise levels. As the industry is finding out, naturally ventilated buildings create more opportunities for buildings to be penetrated by exterior noises, thus creating unintended loud background noise levels. I was interviewed by Buildings Magazine for their article, Fresh Air Creates Fresh Acoustical Concerns. Read the whole article here… http://www.buildings.com/ArticleDetails/tabid/3321/ArticleID/10021/Default.aspx
Several weeks ago, a client invited me to a rehearsal in their highly reverberant space that ABD was hired to test and correct. I declined, as I already had plans to attend a play that evening at a different facility, and joked that during the performance I’d also be listening to sirens from the main street outside the theater. Nearly every time we attend a performance in this space, we hear sirens going by the building. Sure enough, on cue in Act II, “errrrrreeeeeerrrrrhhh” slices into the hall. My husband and I shake our heads. This is why sound isolation of performance spaces from outside noise intrusion is so important. (more)
The 2010 FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities was published in January and adopted as building code by many states. How will you deal with the new noise, privacy, and acoustical requirements for healthcare facilities? Join us at SoundHealthcare 2010, a Health Care Acoustics Seminar, and find out what you must know about the new FGI Guidelines for HIPAA Compliance and LEED HC. There is no charge to attend this 90-minute seminar, but you must register in advance. The new guidelines are the culmination of over five years of collaborative work by researchers, architects, engineers, and acoustical consultants to solve the problems of speech privacy and excessive noise in hospitals. The guidelines are effective immediately for the design of all healthcare facilities. For perspective, consider the 2006 Guidelines which mandated single patient rooms in hospitals. As a result, single patient rooms are the absolute standard in healthcare design today. This was an overnight seismic shift in policy that affected all healthcare building projects. Well, the 2010 Guidelines are no different in their sweeping reforms, addressing a whole new dimension of healthcare design, namely: acoustics, noise, and HIPAA speech privacy laws. Register HERE to attend the seminar. (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)
Mechanical Background Sound in Exam Rooms
January 2010 held a highly anticipated milestone for acoustical consultants. The definitive guide called 2010 FGI/ASHE Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities has a greatly expanded acoustics section in this year’s edition. How will you deal with the new noise, privacy, and acoustical requirements for healthcare facilities? Join us at SoundHealthcare 2010, a Health Care Acoustics Training Seminar, and find out what you must know about the new FGI Guidelines for HIPAA Compliance and LEED HC. This is a brand new chapter in the 2010 FGI Guidelines, which went from a solitary partition transmission loss table in prior issues to an eighty page guideline that comprehensively covers exterior noise, acoustical finishes, background noise, sound isolation, vibration, sound masking systems, audio systems and alarms. As a result, acoustical consultants are hoping that architects and engineers will appreciate the breadth and importance of acoustics and consequently incorporate acoustical design early in a project when it is most cost effective. (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)
How to Gradually Reduce Employee Noise Exposure
Industrial plants are most often loud and dynamic work environments. Noise fields are complex with varying levels of noise produced by many different pieces of equipment, and employees spend varying amounts of time near the different noise sources. Sound levels are even impacted by the building, with taller spaces generally quieter than single story spaces, sound absorbing room finishes sucking up some of the noise, and partitions blocking sound. Measuring worker noise exposure is simple. (more)
Noise Isolation for Hospital Mechanical Rooms
Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities have requirements for large volumes of ventilation and strict control of airflow, and the greater the airflow, the greater the potential for noise. Building mechanical services equipment, fans, pumps, cooling, and heating equipment are all sources of high noise levels. When Acoustics By Design works on a new hospital, we typically expend half of our effort on attenuating building mechanical systems noise. In order to avoid the need for extensive noise and vibration isolating constructions, project designers and engineers should pay careful attention to mechanical room sizes and locations during schematic design. Here are some issues to address early on… (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)
Wind Turbine Noise | Residential Vs. Commercial
Who Can See the Wind?
(by Christina Georgina Rossetti)
Who can see the wind? Neither you nor I
But when the leaves are trembling
The wind is passing by!
Who can see the wind? Neither I nor you
But when the trees are bending low
The wind is passing through!
As this children’s poem points out, the wind’s affect on the surrounding environment is a beautiful thing. But if you live near one of the many “wind farms” popping up all over the country, you may disagree. If that’s you, then “seeing the wind” means 400 foot tall wind turbines interrupting your landscape, and “hearing the wind” may mean loud “whirring” and “whoosh” sounds keeping you awake at night. (more)
Psychoacoustics: Annoyance from Tonal vs. Broadband Sounds
For today’s topic, let’s think of driving our car with the wind rushing by, when all of a sudden our attention is drawn by that annoying squeak coming from the dashboard. The changing of the squeak with time was the topic of a recent blog, but this time we’ll examine its tonal nature. (more)
Acoustics for Video Venues & Portable Churches
From mega-churches to small town congregations, the video-venue concept is becoming a staple of church growth. For those not “in the know”, a “video-venue” is a church meeting where parts of the service (typically the sermon or message) are piped in via video signal and projected on a large screen, while other parts of the service (like the music or announcements) are done live. Since the sermon is filmed in the “main sanctuary”, it can be broadcast to different rooms within the same church building (onsite video-venues) or to campuses across town, out of state, and beyond (offsite video-venues). As a devoted church member and as an acoustical consultant, I have experienced many different types of video venues firsthand, and I have found a common thread of acoustical “challenges” they typically face. If you are planning a video-venue or portable church ministry, here are some important items to consider before selecting your new space… (more)
Your Conversation with your Doctor may not be as Private as you Think
While I was at the doctor’s office the other day, I was allowed to listen to a conversation between a doctor and another patient. Was I in the room with them? I didn’t have to be. The sound isolation between exam rooms was so poor that I could hear virtually everything that was said. (more)
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An Opportunity Lost? GM’s Saturn Division – Success Squandered or Just Delayed?
Early in my career, I was a young acoustics engineer working at the General Motors “Noise and Vibration Laboratory” (NVL) where our function was to provide automotive noise and vibration control solutions to the various vehicle development teams. At one point, my job was to lead the design and development of the noise control (“Sound Package”) solutions for the original Saturn vehicle line. So when I saw the recent news about Roger Penske & Penske Automotive Group acquiring the Saturn brand from General Motors, I found myself thinking back on the glory days of Saturn: what made them so unique, and what solutions will bring them through the current economic recession? (more)
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