Happy Christmas and Thanks for all your help

We thank you for all your support over 2016. The Acoustics Group won more awards with MSc students Doug Shearer and Simon Brown winning the Acoustical Society of America Newman Medal. Andrew Steele for winning the Audio Engineering Society postgraduate prize,  Mateusz Garbala the ANC IOA Best Dissertation prize and Christina Higgins for the best student paper.  Gizem Okten successfully defended her doctoral thesis. Two new lecturers joined the expanding acoustics team with Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina and Mr Eric Ballestero. Links with the Institute of Acoustics were further strengthened with LSBU running the Certificate of Competence in Environmental Noise Measurements, hosting meeting for the Musical Acoustics and for the Aviation review, as well as three Masters's students giving an IOA London branch presentation and one IOA Diploma student presenting at Acoustics 2016, Kenilworth. Dr Stephen Dance wrote the lead article for the IOA Acoustics Bulletin on the hearing acuity of classical musicians. Presentations were also given in Buxton, Hamburg, Helsinki, and Honolulu. The Masters and Diploma students enjoyed field trips to Henry Wood Hall, Royal Opera House, IMAX cinema, Elephant Studios and the Royal College of Art. Education wise it was another bumper year with 53 students enrolled on the MSc/IOA Diploma programmes. We wish them luck with their respective courses. Best wishes for 2017 from the Acoustics Group

Student Christmas Party

The Acoustics students came together for the annual Christmas party to celebrate the end of the most successful year in the history of the Acoustics Group. We'd like to thank all the students for joining the courses. He hope you had fun, made new friends and most importantly expanded your knowledge of sound and vibration!

Noise monitoring kit new and old

The Acoustics Group is testing the performance of a new inexpensive noise monitor solution based on the Raspberry Pi. It is also much much smaller than the commercial solution.

New Lecturer - Eric Ballesteros

The Acoustics Group has expanded! Eric Ballesteros has recently joined the teaching teach. He will be an assistant helping with labs, projects and architectural acoustics. Eric finished the IOA Diploma in 2015 then joined the Masters programme. He specialises in Virtual Reality, coding, modelling and auralization. Welcome to the team!

Acoustics Group Christmas Dinner

The annual Acoustics Group dinner had a Chinese spin this year. PhD students old and new, lecturers old and new, and old technical staff. It's been a busy year and so we celebrated our successes!

A useful book for architects!

A new book has been published aimed specifically at architects to help them understand room acoustics treatments through absorption. Sound Materials by Tyler Adams includes the work of the Acoustics Group of London South Bank University in the form of a case study collaboration with Anne Kyrro Quinn. It also only costs $29.

Dr Dance presents at the 5th ASA-ASJ Meeting

On the 30th November 2016 Dr Stephen Dance presented his paper to the Acoustical Society of America in the Architectural Acoustics - Advanced Analysis, Simulation and Auralisation session. The presentation was a combination of Masters' students work on physical scale modelling and micro-perforated panels. The full results of the paper will be presented at ICSV 24 in London!

ASA-ASJ Meeting 2016

Between the 27th November and 2nd December 2016 the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan held their 5th joint meeting. The meeting was held in Honolulu, Hawaii and Dr Stephen Dance was persuaded to attend as the international representative to the Newman Trust. He also acted as a judge for the ASA Student best prize award. It was a very good conference and a great choice of location!

ICSV a big turn out planned by LSBU

Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina submitted an abstract to International Congress on Sound and Vibration to be held in London in July 2017. His paper is to be presented in the Policy, Education and European Project session. In addition, Masters student, Eric Ballestoras,  submitted his work on Virtual Reality. So in total LSBU has submitted 6 abstracts!

Dr Geoff Leventhall gives a guest lecture

On Monday 5th December 2016, Dr Geoff Leventhall gave a guest lecture to the Masters students. Geoff covered the basics of active noise control and detailed his research into the effects of low frequency sound. The students were highly gained an insight into a lifetime of knowledge from a renowned world expert

Gizem Okten defends her thesis

On the 23rd November PhD candidate Gizem Okten defended her PhD thesis entitled, "An investigation into the effect of acoustics on the vocal strain of opera singers". PhD examiners Professor David Sharp of the Open University and Dr Bob Peters of London South Bank University were impressed with the amount of work undertaken and the quality of the collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music. We all wish Dr Gizem well!

Dynamic Earplugs to be used by Trombone section

On the 16th November 2016, the students of the Royal Academy of Music were given Dynamic Earplugs.  These earplugs are designed to be compatible with playing a brass instrument unlike normal flat response musicians' earplugs. The Dynamic Earplugs will be tested by the Trombone section during concert rehearsals as acoustic screens are also incompatible with their instrument.

Two more abstracts submitted to ICSV 24

A further two abstracts were submitted to ICSV 24 to be held in London in late July 2017. The first was by PhD candidate Gizem Okten entitled, "An investigation into the effect of acoustics on vocal loading of opera singers" in the musical acoustics session. The second is a group effort by former Masters student Simon Brown, current Masters student Carl Ruegger and their tutor Stephen Dance. The paper is entitled, "Measuring the absorption characteristics of small samples using scale modelling and a Microflown impedance gun".

Two abstracts submitted to Acoustics 2017

Two abstracts have been submitted to Acoustics 2017, a joint venture between the Acoustical Society of America and the European Acoustical Association. The venue is Boston in late June, which should be nice. The abstracts were by Stephen Dance, "Face the Music", and Eric Ballestero on "Improving the reproduction of an operatic performance in an IMAX cinema".

New USB measurement microphone

A new UMIK-1 omnidirectional measurement microphone was purchased from miniDSP.com. It is hoped that this USB connected computer based measurement microphone will be part of a cheap and easy to use acoustic sound level monitoring system. The UMIK-1 was recommended by Direct (former B&K room acoustic measurement system)

Ian Gorton awarded CIBSE Bursary

Full time Masters student Ian Gorton has been awarded a bursary from the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineering. Ian is studying on the MSc in Environmental and Architectural Acoustics course has decided to use the bursary to support his education through the purchase of special software. London South Bank University all wish him!

Abstract submitted to ICSV 24, London

On the 9th November 2016 an abstract was submitted to the International Congress on Sound and Vibration 24 to be held in London, 23-27th July 2017. The paper is based on the Masters thesis of Rodrigo Sanchez-Pizani and is entitled, "Impact that acoustic design has on higher education for non-English speaking students". More to follow!

The Art of Being a Consultant

The Acoustics Group is pleased to announce that the Institute of Acoustics will be holding a symposium on, "The Art of Being a Consultant". This is the fifth time the IOA are running this annual seminar which tours around the country. The Keyworth Centre of London South Bank University is where the event will be hosted on the 22nd February 2017. Leading consultants give their time to inform those new to consultancy or are thinking of joining the industry the benefit of their wisdom/experience.

Unilad World Record Attempt for Being Quiet!

On the morning of the 28th October 2016 UNILAD visited the Acoustic Laboratory of London South Bank University. Rio Fredrika was attempting to break the record for the longest solo stay in an anechoic chamber. After a lot of neurotic behaviour and displacement activity she lasted 66 minutes which is a record and Rio had a new hair style! Here's the video link

Measurements at the Royal Opera House

On the very late evening of the 28th October 2016 acoustic students from London South Bank University measured the room parameters of the Royal Opera House. Starting at 11pm Masters student Keir Hannan organised the team to characterise the acoustics of the main auditorium. They completed the job at 3am! It's an acoustician's life!

PhD Candidate Gizem Okten submits thesis

On the 19th October 2016 PhD Candidate Gizem Okten submitted her PhD thesis. The doctoral thesis is on, "An investigation into the effect of acoustics on vocal strain of singers". We all wish her luck with her defence on 23rd November 2016.

LSBU Graduates 2016

On 24th October 2016 the Acoustics student of the Class of 2015 graduated. The ceremony was held locally at the Royal Festival Hall. In attendance with very proud parents/supporters were Sarma Varma, Eric Bustamante, Doug Shearer, Andrew Steele, Yannis Tima Proteas, Tamasine Leighton-Crawford, and Simon Brown. Well done to one and all!

IMAX Cinema Tests

A dozen students from the Masters course undertook a perception test at the IMAX Cinema Waterloo. Using the New York Metropolitan Opera production of "Tristian and Isolde" by Wagner the new setup of the IMAX sound system was evaluated subjectively. Early results were positive!

MSc/IOA students 2016/7

Welcome to the 2016/17 recruits to the London South Bank University postgraduate acoustics courses. We have 28 Institute of Acoustics Diploma students and 12 1st year Masters students. We hope that they enjoy their Thursday's with Bob, Steve and Luis!

Institute of Acoustics Certificate Students 2016

Between 27th September and 7th October the Acoustics Group enrolled 13 students for the Institute of Acoustics Certificate of Competence for Environmental Noise Measurement. The course team, Luis Gomez-Agustina, Stephen Dance and Bob Peters hope they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we wish they the best of luck on the 7th October 2016, when they sit the exam!

Dr Dance presents at Inter-Noise 2016

During Inter-Noise 2016, Dr Stephen Dance of the Acoustics Group of London South Bank University presented his research on musician hearing. His paper was entitled, "Facing the Music: Helping classical musicians comply with the Control of Noise at Work Regulations". The audience were engaged asking many probing questions on the results of the research!

ICSV 24 to be held in London, July 2017

The International Congress of Sound And Vibration is coming to London, 23-27 July 2017. The conference will be held at the Crown Plaza at Waterloo Station. The Acoustics Group of London South Bank University are involved in the Musical Acoustics theme and in arranging local tours. We hope as many local delegates can come and enjoy next summer's main event!

New iPhone Microphone from Inter-Noise

This is the new Zheyiang ASV instruments iSV1600 1/4" omni-directional measurement microphone. During Inter-Noise 2016 in Hamburg Dr Stephen Dance purchase this $10 mic from the Hangzhou Aihua Instruments Company. The students will be testing it's performance - claimed to be 50 Hz - 10 kHz at +/- 2 dB.

Seminar to the ISVR Advanced Course

For the 20th time Dr Stephen Dance was invited down to ISVR, University of Southampton to give his annual lecture. This time it was to the Advanced Course on Noise Control Engineering teaching room acoustic simulation. ISVR were excellent hosts, looking after all their delegates and lecturers. We all hope that we can all do it again next year,

Bridget Shield presents to Nordic Conferences

Emerita Professor Bridget Shield presented her work at two Nordic specialist voice and acoustics conferences this autumn. Bridget presentation was entitled, "Open plan schools- the acoustic challenges" to the Society of Voice Ergonomics  and the Nordic Voice Ergonomics Group. This was a European lead events bring leading researchers together, allowing plans for future collaboration to be discussed.

 

Nick Durup PhD candidate presents in Helsinki

In September 2016 PhD candidate Nick Durup from the Acoustics Group of London South Bank University was invited to Helsinki for two specialist voice and acoustics conferences.

Nick presented his research on Voice Paramets and Acoustics in Schools at the 5th symposium of the Finnish Society of Voice Ergonomics held at the Biomedicum research and educational institution for medical sciences, as well as the meeting of the Nordic Voice Ergonomics Group held at the Scandic Simonkentta hotel. The events brought together many of the leading researchers in the field from across Europe to exchange ideas and plan future joint projects.This along with unseasonably warm weather in Finland made for a good conference for all!

 

Hearing Project gives each student earplugs

Through the long standing collaboration between the Acoustics Group and the Royal Academy of Music each new student will be given a pair of Happy Ear earplugs. The earplugs now come in three sizes : small, medium and large, and are designed specifically for musicians. Every student loves a freebie!

Acoustics Exchange Day at Sheffield University

On the 13th September Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina attended the Acoustics Exchange Day, a networking event organised by the Institute of Acoustics and Sheffield University.  Luis gave a brief overview of the past and current acoustic research at London South Bank University and suggested potential collaborations. He also took the opportunity to introduce the Acoustic courses and lab facilities at LSBU. Perhaps next Exchange day could take place at LSBU ! Watch this space

The 3000th Royal Academy of Music Hearing Test

The continuing Royal Academy of Music project has now reached the 3000th student tested. Since 2007 every Royal Academy of Music student has been given a hearing test at London South Bank University. We hope the project continues so that future follow up studies can be undertaken!

10th Royal Academy of MusicSeminar

On the 8th and 9th September 2016, Dr Stephen Dance gave his 10th address to the new students of the Royal Academy of Music. The seminar discussed Musicians' Hearing and the Sound of Performance. This year it was divided into four groups: Vocal and Keyboards, Music Theatre, Wind/Brass/Percussion/Jazz and Strings. Let's hope they learned something!

Making friends at Inter-Noise 2016

Over the course of Inter-Noise 2016 many new friends were made and old faces resurfaced, Allan Menino! Stefan Weigand of Hafen City University asked if Dr Stephen Dance would become his second supervisor on his room acoustics simulation project, "Sound Particle Methods in Noise Control". It was a pleasure to meet him and many more conference delegate, just too many to mention!

Simon Brown presents at Inter-Noise 2016

On Tuesday 23rd August 2016 former MSc student Simon Brown presented his paper at Inter-Noise 16. Simon's paper was entitled, "The suitability of additive manufacturing materials in a 1:10 scale reverberation chamber" and it was in a Materials session called, "Experimental porous characterisation - from State of the Art to Standardisation". There were many questions some of which needed deciphoring!

Doug Shearer presents at Inter-Noise 2016

To a full house, PhD student Doug Shearer presented his first conference paper to Inter-Noise 2016. Doug presented in the Measurement Method in Building Acoustics session his paper, "Measuring absorption below 100 Hz with a particle velocity- pressure sensor. He was asked many questions which he handled, although I think the paper produced more questions than answers!

The Acoustics Group at Inter-Noise 2016

The Acoustics Group attended Inter-Noise 2016 hosted by Hamburg. On the 20-24th August Hamburg hosted Inter-Noise 2016. Three oral presentations were given at the conference by the Acoustics Group, as well as assisting with a bid to I-INCE to host Inter-Noise 2019 in Glasglow, in the end Madrid won. Hamburg is a beautiful city and Germany were wonderful hosts!

Testing Active Absorbers

On the 19th August 2016, LSBU Elephant Studios were testing the new AVAA active absorbers. The absorbers were introduced at AES in June 2016, so the Acoustics Group thought they needed testing! Using Elephant Studios 2 AVAA C20 absorbers were tested. Future testing will be undertaken in a less challenging environment.

New Lecturer joins the Acoustics Group

On the 1st September 2016 we will welcome back Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina to the Acoustics Group. Dr Gomez-Agustina will be joining us as an acoustics lecturer and Institute of Acoustics Certificate and Diploma course director. Welcome Back Luis!

Visit to KU Leuven

On the 9th August 2016, Dr Stephen Dance visited the Catholic University of Leuven to discuss options for potential research collaborations. Dr Elke Deckers of the Department of Mechanical Engineering hosted the discussions in splendid style on a beautiful day. Let's hope a return visit can be organised soon.

Masters students present at IOA London Branch

On the 20th July 2016, three Masters students presented their work to the Institute of Acoustics London branch. Doug Shearer presented on low frequency absorption, Simon Brown on physical scale modelling using 3-D printing, and Andrew Steele closed things up with his talk on a new 3-D printed design for a omni-directional sound source. Then, at the kind invitation of Vanguardia, the full house enjoyed the hospitality of the Knights Templar.

Geoff Leventhall visit our labs

On the 18th July 2016 Dr Geoff Leventhall visited London South Bank University to help undertake an experiment on reversing alarms in our anechoic chamber. Geoff was our Head of Department more than 25 years ago, yet he is still doing research! Acousticians go on longer!

Abstract submitted to Acoustical Society of America 2016

On the 11th July 2016, Dr Stephen Dance, Simon Brown and Carl Ruegger submitted an abstracted to the 5th Joint Acoustical Society of America and Japanese Acoustical Society. The meeting will be held in Honolulu, USA between 28th November and the 2nd December 2016. The abstract was based on the Masters dissertation of Simon Brown and the cheap acoustics project of Carl Ruegger and is entitled,"Absorption characteristics of micro-perforated panels using scale modelling and Microflown impedance gun". Now who wants to go...

End of Year Celebrations

On the evening of the 5th July 2016 Dr Stephen Dance invited lecturers/guest speakers for dinner and drinks in thanks of their work over the course of the year on the acoustics MSc and IOA Diploma. So special thanks go to Salih Hassan, Ken nMarriott, Dr Bob Peters and Dr Lorenzo Morales for all their contributions to our courses. 

PhD student Gizem Okten presents

On the 5th July 2016 PhD candidate Gizem Okten presented her research on Opera Singers at the Institute of Acoustics Musical Acoustics Meeting. Her paper was entitled, "Effects of room acoustics on Vocal Loading of Opera Singers". The presentation summarised her PhD research work and was well received by the attentive audience. Well done Gizem!

Institute of Acoustics Musical Group meeting

On the 5th July 2016, London South Bank University hosted the Institute of Acoustics Musical Acoustics Group. The one day symposium entitled, "Current developments in Musical Acoustics", covered a range of topics- piano building, singing, modelling strings, concert shells and organs. The highlight was Alan Taylor demonstrating a reconstruction of Sabine's sound generating device used at Harvard to measure room acoustics of Fogg Lecture Hall.  An excellent meeting !

Mateusz Garbala wins ANC Prize

At the annual 2016 Association of Noise Consultants conference LSBU student  Mateusz Garbala received the ANC prize. The prize is for best Institute of Acoustics Diploma project prize. Mat's was on Noise exposure on London Underground. We all wish Mat well with his career in acoustics.

ANC Conference 2016

On the 29th June 2016 the Association of Noise Consultants held their annual conference at the Crowne Plaza, Birmingham. Dr Stephen Dance was lucky enough to act as one of the competition judges. Helen Czerski gave an enthusiastic guest speaker, talking about bubbles... Champagne bubbles my favourite kind!

Andrew Steele wins the 1st Acoustics Cup!

Philip Robinson of Fosters + Partners awarded the acoustics winner of the inaugural Building Services and Acoustics Design Show. This year Andrew Steele won the beautiful gold trophy for his small lightweight 3-D printed dodec loudspeaker, designed to fit in an overhead flight locker. In development are two new designs of the speakers which further improve the design! Well done Andy!

Acoustics End of Year Show 2016

Thanks for all the students to coming to the 2nd Building Services and Acoustics End of Year Show, held at the new LSBU Student Centre. The students presented their project work to Philip Robinson of Fosters + Partners, 3 minutes each to determine the winner. Philip was impressed by both the cheap acoustics prototype devices  and the dissertation work. Drinks all round!