
Noise Assessments – March to June 2020 – Recent Work
Our work these past few months in conducting noise assessments and building acoustic design all over the UK and beyond.
COVID-19:
We remain open, providing a full range of noise assessment and building acoustic design services
The aim of our articles are to break down acoustic design concepts and terminology as simply as possible, without going too far into the mathematics and every nitty gritty technicality, that acoustic consultants usually love to get stuck into.
So please, if you’re an architect, contractor, developer, planner… or really anyone who occasionally needs to dabble in acoustic design and assessments… then read on…
Is there an acoustic, noise, or vibration related topic or problem that you would like explained? Send us an email and one of our acoustic consultants will write an article about it.
How can a fair level of speech privacy still be achieved between colleagues when there are no walls? How can we prevent a build up noise from giving everyone a headache?
Reducing the reverberation time is critical, linking to the level of sound energy ‘bouncing’ around the room. By adding sound absorbing finishes and furniture, we can minimize speech sound travelling over distance by suppressing sound reflections from the room. Reducing reverberation can soften the sound too, creating a less harsh / bright sounding environments which can be preferred for concentration, and increasing speech intelligibility in our immediate vicinity (but increasing speech privacy from others sitting further away.
Linked to the reverberation time, suppressing reflections is achieved by using sound absorbing material. The critical difference is the location of the material. Whilst it is good for reverberation to spread treatment around the room, some cleverly placed treatment can be used to enhance the noise screening effect of desk dividers and furniture by minimizing sound reflections of surfaces over and around them.
Screens which block the line of sight between a ‘source’ and a ‘receptor’ aid in minimizing ‘direct’ sound. Screens are best placed close to the source or receptor and can be used around group working areas to contain sound effectively. Even partial height desk dividers are effective by reducing sound reflections off the desk and diffusing sound such that it can reach the acoustic absorption around the room more efficiently.
Many of the points above can be tackled without an abundance of specialist products, through careful design of the layout. For example, the building structure can act as a noise screen if separate groups are placed around the corner from one another. Shelving and lockers can be used as screens or placed to prevent large groups congregating in area near quiet workers. Similarly, noise-sensitive workers can be placed in areas further away from more talkative groups (particularly those who are regularly on the phone), or those using noise equipment.
External noise sources (such as road traffic) can provide some useful background noise, dependent on the context. An office close to a motorway should experience a relatively constant noise level without tonal or intermittent qualities. On the other hand, a city center road with intermittent traffic, or regular ambulances, buses, and car horns, may be more of a distraction.
In a mechanically ventilated building, a consistent unremarkable broadband noise can be achieved through the air handling system. On the other hand, an AHU with a tonal noise quality may have an adverse effect, as would intermittent noise from pipework, toilets, hand driers…
Artificially injecting white or pink noise into an open plan office by a series of ceiling mounted loudspeakers. The use of a broadband noise is not dissimilar to the noise of an air conditioning system, providing a steady unobtrusive noise source which is barely noticeable, but helps to mask the intermittent and intelligible speech of a neighboring colleague.
I hope you enjoyed this short article, and keep an eye out for more articles on the common questions that I get asked by clients in my job as an acoustic consultant. Feel free to connect and message me through LinkedIn, send me an email at chris@parkerjonesacoustics.com, or through our Contact Us page.
Our work these past few months in conducting noise assessments and building acoustic design all over the UK and beyond.
Some of our recent work assessing the acoustic performance of offices and meeting rooms, specifying acoustic treatment to solve the issues.
Open plan office acoustic design, reverberation control in meeting rooms, background noise mitigation in conference spaces. Some of our recent work from January 2020.
Sound insulation testing and acoustic design are essential for new build/change of use residential developments, to comply with Part E of the Building Regs.
What effects sound insulation? What are the parameters in sound insulation? How can I get a high level of soundproofing? A technical in-depth look at the topic of internal sound insulation in buildings.
A quick explanation of airborne and structure-borne sound transmission paths
Sound testing to comply with Part E of the Building Regulations for residential. Compliance surveys for BREEAM for other building types.
Internal building acoustic design from planning, through detailed design, to completion. Sound insulation, reverberation, internal noise, building services, schools, hospitals, residential…