Sounding Off: Our Blog
Thoughts, insights, and perspectives on the latest news, trends, and issues regarding architectural acoustics, environmental and industrial noise and vibration, and audiovisual systems design.
Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Recently we were called in to consult on some highway noise that was affecting a residential community. The state had added a new exit ramp that diverged right through the back property lines of several of the residences. While we talked with one of the home owners, he asked about the acoustical effects of planting more trees and foliage between his house and the new exit ramp. As Acoustical Consultants, this is something we hear all the time: the idea that trees and plants can effectively mitigate loud noise. Hopefully, this blog will help put to rest some of the myths about acoustical attributes of trees: where they fail and where they succeed.
University Technology: Attending Class In Your Underwear
Urban legends claim that a good way to calm your nerves before giving a speech is to imagine the audience in their underwear. But what if you could attend class in a T-shirt and underwear without anyone else ever knowing it? Well, at many colleges and universities around the world, you already can.
Order in The Court
In the “old days” of trial litigation, lawyers were expected to present their arguments and evidence through one of several basic modes of communication: namely the spoken word, the written word, and physical evidence. And the best evidence always seemed to be an eye-witness account or a “smoking gun,” as it were. But as we learned in the 1990s, sometimes even the best of leather gloves won’t seem to fit.
How Many Employees Can You Fit Into a VW Beetle?
In a former life I worked for a very large engineering company with over 1,000 engineers working in an open plan office, everyone working on one floor. We lovingly referred to our floor as the “cube farm”. One day I arrived at the office just as the lunch crowd was making their mass exodus. Although I was frustrated by my inability to enter the building, I couldn’t help but think of the old “how many college kids can fit into a VW Beetle” gag as I waited for the never-ending trail of people to exit the building.
Auditorium Noise Isolation: You Gotta Keep Em’ Separated
Mixing noise pollution with an intimate auditorium setting is almost always a bad idea, and as the song says, “You gotta keep em’ separated.” There’s nothing like untimely noise pollution to ruin the flow of a good theatrical performance or vocal recital. For our purposes today, we will define “noise pollution” as any unwanted sound impeding at an unwanted time. When you’re engineering acoustical solutions for an auditorium, the importance of noise isolation is paramount, and it’s the only way to really keep the “bad sound” out. Noise pollution can hinder speech intelligibility and greatly reduce the ability for an audience to hear and understand what is being said. In auditoriums, noise pollution can come from a wide array of culprits from within or without the facility.
Acoustical Design for Contemporary Churches
The challenge with contemporary church architecture is that the term “contemporary” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For some, it means a praise band and a projector. For others, it means the service is full of drama, dance, video, interactive preaching, and more. With all the different styles, a lot of contemporary churches feel stuck in the middle with facilities that are in between “where it is” and “where it ought to be.”