First Opera Singing Vocal Tests

On 29th November 2012 at the Royal Academy of Music the first vocal stress test of opera singers was undertaken using the KayPentax Ambulation Phonation Monitor. It was a beautiful experience thanks to Sarah :)

A Personal Tour of the Royal Opera House

On the 23rd November 2012 the Royal Opera House kindly invited the Acoustics Group to visit. Matt Downes personally gave the Masters students a tour around the entire building. We then picked up the acoustic screens the orchestra had been using in the pit. This is when many pairs of hands made light work, but only after eating some crepes in Covent Garden!

Lorenzo presents at Reproduced Sound

At Reproduced Sound early on Friday 16th November PhD student Lorenzo Morales presented his paper entitled, " Preliminary validation of the revised STI male scale for the English language". This was the first of two papers he had contributed to, but lucky Glen Leembruggen presented the follow up paper! There papers were very well received.

Abstracts submitted to ICA in Montreal

Three abstracts have been submitted to the International Congress on Acoustics to be held in Montreal, Canada in June 2013. The first abstract entitled, "Straw bale sound insulation- Blowing away the chaff", will be presented by Dr Stephen Dance. The second abstract is on, "Vocal stress and acoustics in schools", and will be presented by Nick Durup. The final abstract is entitled, "Urban wind turbines- a Pilot Study", the paper will be presented by Ben Dymock. As it happens the F1 Grand Prix is also going on at the same time!

Newman Medalist - Graham Shaw

On the 19th November 2012, MSc student Graham Shaw was awarded the Newman Medal from the Acoustical Society of America. His dissertation was entitled, "The Schultz Equation - As an alternative to measuring the reverberation time in small furnished rooms". The Bradford Newman medal is for excellence in the study of acoustics and its application in architecture. Well done Graham!

Students at IoA Reproduced Sound conference

On the 15-16 November 2012 the Acoustics Group had a large presence at the Institute of Acoustics Reproduced Sound conference in Brighton. In attendance were 6 Masters students, 3 PhD students (Ben Dymock, Peter Mapp and Lorenzo Morales) and 3 academics - Prof Shield, Dr Gomez and Dr Dance. Brighton in November wasn't too bad!

Italian Interns and Henry Wood Hall

On the 12th November Chiara Ehrhardt came to visit our laboratory to organise an internship for Spring 2013. Chiara and Daniela Falzone plan on joining the Acoustics Group for a few months from the Politecico of Turin working with Arianna Astolfi. Arrangement have been made to visit and measure the acoustics of Henry Wood Hall on 22nd March 2013 and to work with the Royal Academy of Music until end of the summer term.Looking forward to learning some Italian words!

On the 27th November 2012, the Building Research Establishment is hosting a 1 day meeting organised by the Institute of Acoustics Measurement Group. PhD student Peter Mapp will be presenting his finding on, "Acoustic Apps and Measurements using iPhone and iPads". This continues the Acoustics Group long association with consumer electronics and inexpensive measurement systems.

Celebration of a 120 years

London South Bank University is celebrating 120 years! On the 8th November 2012 the Department of Urban Engineering organised it's own contribution to the celebrations with the President of the Institute of Civil Engineers and CIBSE ex-President Graham Manly. Many old faces turned up amongst a number of our more recent students, although we did have two who graduated in 1952 from the National College of Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering at Borough Polytechnic. 

Ken Marriott Lecture Series

Over the course of October 2012, Acoustic Consultant Ken Marriott has kindly given a lecture series to the MSc students. Ken covered industrial process acoustics with emphasis on oil platform and processing plants. He cleverly integrated acoustics into mechanical services demonstrating what can go wrong. Obviously, we I had to show by taking Ken for a drink!

Welcome to the club - Dr Luis

Luis Gomez Agustina pass his PhD defence on the 31st October 2012. The research thesis was entitled, "Design and optimisation of voice alarm systems for underground stations". Dr Bob Peters and Professor John Turner were impressed by the demonstration and the impact of the research. Well done Luis!