RBA Acoustics Prize Awarded

The RBA Acoustics Prize was awarded to Gil van Buuren for the best dissertation from a student on the Masters course in 2009. Gil will be presented with his prize in March 2010 at London South Bank University ceremony. Well done!

Royal Academy of Engineering Travel Grant

Dr Stephen Dance was awarded an International Travel Grant by the Royal Academy of Engineering on 15th February 2010. The grant is to cover the expenses of visiting Australia for the ICA 2010 conference in Sydney. He hopes the sun is shining then!

Decapitated Sea Gull by Wind Turbine

On Tuesday 16th February 2010 a decapitated sea gull was found next to our sound level meter by the Proven wind turbine. This is the second dead bird in 2.5 years of monitoring the turbines. Oh well, it was only a gull

Amadeus Screens used for Full Orchestral Rehearsal

On 18th February 2010 at the Royal Academy of Music 20 Amadeus transparent screens were used for the first time. A full orchestra rehearsal was undertaken with screens positioned on the back of the chairs of the brass, woodwind and 2nd desk of strings. We hope the students enjoyed the experience

New orchestra stand screen tested

On 12th February 2010 the prototype orchestra stand screen was tested at the Royal Academy of Music. A trumpeter performed until realistic, if lonely conditions, in the Dukes Hall and the insertion loss of the screen was measured. I like to point out, the above picture, is the after condition!

Presenting at London Branch Meeting

On 17th March 2010 Dr Stephen Dance and Dr Bradford Backus will be jointly presenting at an Evening Branch meeting of the Institute of Acoustics. The topic of discussion is their work undertaken with the Royal Academy and Royal College of Music. We hope you can all attend!

New Orchestra Pit Screen Tested

On 9th February 2010 a new orchestra pit screen was tested in the Acoustics Laboratory. The anechoic chamber was used to perform insertion loss measurements, although there is no standard for such a small screen!

Phd Examiner for Doctoral Candidate

On 4th February 2010, Prof John Turner agreed to be the external examiner for doctoral candidate Louis Gomez. John is the Pro Vice Chancellor of Portsmouth University and Acting Dean of the Faculty for Technology. Louis is the first KTP Associate to finish his project and is now writing up his thesis on Speech Intelligibility on London Underground. The deal was done over a very good curry!

Auralisation Recording by Arup and the Royal College of Music

On 3rd February 2010 a joint auralisation experiment was undertaken by Arup and the Royal College of Music at the Acoustics Lab. Ashley Waring and Neill Woodge of Arup set up the hard disk recorder and Terry Clark of the College provided the orchestration. Recordings were made of 16 students applauding in the anechoic chamber, so we were running a clap clinic that day:) I think all enjoyed their day and we paid for the time!