Noise Network+ 1sr General Assembly

 

On the 31st March 2026 at the Melia Innside Hotel Manchester the EPSRC funded Noise+ Network held it's first General Assembly. The event coordinated and focused it mission and presented six pilot research projects. Post event Pizza and drinks allowed discussions to continue. Highly enjoyable. Good luck with year 2!

Examination of Peter Wheeler at the Open University

 

On the 30th March 2026 Professor Stephen Dance examined PhD candidate Peter Wheeler for the Open University. Peter's thesis was entitled, "The missing fundamental phenomenon as a method for low frequency noise mitigation". The candidate defended the novel research which was undertaken with Vangardia Consulting. Well done Peter!   

Art of Being an Acoustician 2026

 

On the 19th March 2026 the Institute of Acoustics held their annual Art of Being meetings. Professor Stephen Dance organised the first day, the Art of Being an Acoustician, whilst PhD student Zach Simcox organised day 2. On the first day 8 speakers covering: experience (Bridget Shield and Ken Mariott), execution (Antonella Bevilacqua, Enzo de Sena, Braford Backus) and early careers (Zach Simcox and Alec Korchev) presented their journey into acoustics and challenging problems. The event was held at St Giles Hotel, in Central London, where we bumped into Quentin Tarantino! No time to talk about sound stage design though :)  We had 25 and 35 attendees for each day.

Royal Opera House Music Practice Room

 

On the 6th March 2026 the Acoustic Group visited the Royal Opera House to assess the Music Practice Rooms. PhD students Simla Turhan and Antonella Bevilacqua lead the room acoustic measurements with Professor Stephen Dance asking the assistance of members of the Royal Ballet and Opera for their opinion of the space. We may have a practical solution !! 

Big Growth Project completed with Depixen

On the 26th February 2026 at the new London South Bank University Croydon campus a celebration event was held for the BIG Growth innovation London. Professor Stephen Dance, Alex Hokin were in attendance to celebrate with Yildiz Kara a representative of Depixen. The Depixen project was a great success bringing AI to Architecture in particular acoustics materials. The next steps were agreed, so we are going international, Istanbul bound in May 2026!  

 

Association of Architecture Students Visit Acoustics Laboratory

On the 19th February 2026 the 4th year students from the School of the Association of Architects visited the Acoustics Laboratory of London South Bank University. The now annual trip jointly organised by Professor Stephen Dance (LSBU) with Dr Doug Shearer and Ms Laura Azcarate both from the AA. This year the students got to test their hearing, maximise absorption,  experience silence and good some good vibrations!    

 

Acoustic measurement taken at the Royal Opera House

 

On the 16th February 2026 acoustic measurements were taken at the Royal Opera House in their Clore Studio. A full set of laser scans, room acoustic measurements, material impedance measurements, ambisonic measurements,  and background noise measurements were taken in 3 hours. This was thanks to a team of students: Matt Ward (Diploma), Antonella Bevilacqua (PhD), Simla Turhan (PhD) under the tutorage of Professor Stephen Dance. Together let's see if we can come up with a suitable design!