IOA Diploma Student Projects & NTI-Audio best project award

 
Three IOA Diploma students will present their own research at the London Branch meeting to be held on 20 January 2021 over Zoom. John Allen will present on, "The Effectiveness of Military Air Crew Helmet Protection"; Courtney Hawkins on, "The Effect of Weather on Building Acoustic Design"; and finally Rory Hendrick on, "Vibration in Fiber-Reinforced Concrete". At the end of the evening Charles Green will present the NTi-Audio award to the best student. Good luck everyone!  

Scotland: Welcomed the reintroduction of music in hospitality venues

 

On the 12^th December 2020 background music was reintroduced to the hospitality sector in Scotland thanks to some fleet footed acoustics research. The Scottish Parliament having banned music in August 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID. In October 2020 Prof Stephen Dance and UKAN supported KSG Acoustics to quickly design and develop a new subjective methodology statement to establish safe amplified indoor audio levels. In November 2020, this methodology was objectively assessed as effective based on multiple field studies. The research was put in-front of ministers in December 2020 where it was agreed to be suitable for implementation by both License Standards Officers and Environment Health Officers. Let's hope the pubs and restaurants open again soon!

Greenwich Foot Tunnel Acoustically Surveyed

 

The Greenwich foot tunnel in London (UK) connects the south and north banks of the river Thames. It runs 15m beneath the river bank and is 370m long. It was inaugurated in 1902, it is a listed building used by a 1.2 million people a year. It has become an interesting London acoustic landmark due to its unusual and interesting acoustic characteristics. In December 2020 for the first time ever, a comprehensive survey was undertaken to characterize the acoustics of this London landmark. It was conducted by Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina and former LSBU MSc Acoustics student Pedro Vazquez-Barrera with the assistance of PhD candidate Doug Shearer. Watch this space for further information on results.

Summary of Acoustics Group Activity: 2020

We thank you all for your support over what can only be described as a difficult year. To summarise links with IOA were further strengthened with branch meetings and virtual seminars given by both staff and students. Presentations were given at various virtual conferences including IOA annual conference, European INCE on Quiet Drones, Reproduced Sound, and of course Inter-Noise 2020.  Six journal papers were published on metadiffusers, lung sounds, recycled glass beads, the UK noise environment under COVID- theQuietProject.co.uk, inflatables as an acoustic treatment and the noise from the operation of London Heliport. Dr Bob Peter’s final book was published on uncertainty. Prizes were awarded to IOA Students: Jakub Hajku (NTi award) and Paul Roberts (ANC Diploma project) and of course Doug Shearer was awarded his doctorate! Sponsorship and support was extended by both the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Opera House. New equipment was purchased to deliver “Lab in a Box”, Dirac 6 for measurements, and CADNA-A for environmental noise modelling. Research funding was secured to extend the UK Acoustics Network and a new EPSRC UKAN+ grant awarded for 2021-25. Next year will see normality resume and the introduction of the long awaited Apprenticeship in Acoustics! Happy New Year to you all.

 

New Book out: Uncertainty in Acoustic Measurements

 
On the 27th July 2020 the last work by Dr Bob Peters was published by CRC Press. Bob's book on Uncertainty in Acoustics Measurement, prediction and assessment was his personal bugbear. Dr Peters managed to persuade 12 contributors to each write a chapter on their specialist area, one of which was our own Professor Peter Mapp - who covered speech intelligibility. Bob always said he admired the Douglas Adams quote, "I love the sound a deadline makes when it whizzes passed". We all miss you Bob.  

Abstract submitted to Inter-Noise 21 on Teaching under Covid

 On the 10th December 2021 Professor Dance submitted an abstract to Inter-Noise 2021. The 50th anniversary conference will be held in Washington, 1-4th August 2021. The abstract entitled, "COVID Teaching of Acoustics and Noise Control: Lab in a Box for Experiments at Home" in the session on the next 50 years of Noise Control. This year the conference will be hybrid in nature, but I hope to see you in person - it's been a while! 

Virtual Reality Measurements at the Royal Academy of Music

 

Last week PhD students, Eric Ballestero and Doug Shearer went to the Royal Academy of Music to undertaken a series of unusual measurements. They were trying to replicate the feeling of being in the halls using virtual reality. To do this a 360 camera was used along with ambisonic microphones to take recordings and measurements. We hope to test the system in early 2021 on the students to see how close to reality we got! 

Paul Roberts wins the ANC Diploma Project Award

 
On the 1st December 2020 the first virtual recipient of the ANC Diploma Prize was awarded. We are very help to announce that Paul Roberts won for his project, "Sound Propagation from Lightwells". Paul made a short response thanking the ANC for the book and his supervisor Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina. Well done Paul!  

Association of Noise Consultants Awards

On the 1st December 2020 the Association of Noise Consultants held their first on-line awards ceremony. Usually this would be part of the ANC Summer Conference, but COVID had other plans. This year Professor Dance was one of a panel of judges casting on eye over the nominees. We wish them all well, but particular one's that were educated at London South Bank University.