dBx Acoustics

A Strange Thing Happened…

The strangest things happen on noise surveys…

I was going to write a blog about the strangest things that have happened to me when I’ve been out on a survey. Then it occurred to me – I can’t  be the only one. This blog is therefore crowd-sourced from the experiences of colleagues past and present as well as my own adventures.

The short arm of the law

“I once got propositioned by a working girl then an hour later almost got arrested on suspicion of being a working boy!!!”

“I was stopped by the police at 3am as they thought I might be soliciting. I was wearing tights, thermals, a grotty tracksuit, fleece, gloves and a bobble hat. Apparently the standards in Ealing aren’t that high.”

“Had a tripod stolen but all of the rest of the equipment left in place!”

“Been stopped by police and told to be careful as they had reports of suspicious looking person in that location. I was the suspicious looking person.”

“I had agreed with a resident that I’d get into their garden by going over the wall, so that I wouldn’t disturb them for the night time measurements. The police arrived just as I was at the top of the ladder with one leg over the wall, dressed all in black with a hat and scarf on. I was quite surprised that when I said  was doing a noise survey, they went away!”

Animal encounters

“I got mobbed by seagulls on a rooftop in London and ended up in a&e.”

“Collected mic to find a slug sat on the diaphragm. Anyone know what the slug loading correction is?”

“I got trapped in a car in a field by horses gathering round the engine to keep warm.”

“I was stalked around a field by a herd of cows. Every time I stopped, they stopped too, but the ones at the back didn’t get the memo. Cow pile up.”

“A cow ate the windshield from the meter.”

“A horse ate the windshield from the meter.”

“I left the meter in a field with a goat. The windshield WASN’T eaten”

“The building had feral cats living in the walls. They were surprisingly noisy.”

“Have been cornered by a bull and had to escape over and fence and throw the equipment over a stream.”

“Measuring noise in a field in Suffolk, I noticed something round that looked like a rock in my measurement position (It was night so quite dark). So I gently hooked my foot under it and gave it a good kicked it out of the way. It travelled a good 12 feet, then after a while uncurled itself and waddled off. I had no idea it was a hedgehog. Sorry Mr hedgehog.”

Interesting characters

“I had to call the fire brigade to have them put out a burning car in the middle of the fens at about 2am”

“I had a man offer me ‘special interest’ material”

“Saw a man taking his dog for a walk/run whilst he was driving alongside it, again, in the fens”

“Tried to measure outside a nightclub door way in Blackpool but there was a couple having sex in it. “I’ll come back later.””

“I got the meter on its tripod kicked down the street by a lady who was convinced I was filming her house.”

“A site security guard made me a ‘sexy’ mix tape and handed it to me when I was leaving site…then followed up by working out where I worked and calling me to ask me out. Extra creepy points.”

“I spent a night surveying in Kings Cross. One guy entertained himself for a long time by throwing chips at my head. I also picked up a hanger on who had missed the last train and was scared to spend the night alone.”

“Had builders sing the complete works of Neil Diamond into mic.”

“a) Found I was measuring in a cottaging hotspot and was propositioned several times.

b) One bored guy struck up a long conversation about my job while he was waiting to find someone to have sex with.

c) Retold above story at company internal conference only to find out the MD, who was present, lived on that street.”

Fire, exclamation mark. Send Help, exclamation mark.

“SI test in an occupied retirement home, using starting pistol for RT. Spent cartridge set fire to a rug.”

“Left a logger running in a timber framed furniture warehouse. double checked on it before leaving and found the power supply on fire.”

We’re only human!

“I spent many hours sat in a car in the area north of Kings Cross from midnight waiting for a goods train to come through. The only one that night. Had accelerometers tied to a paper trace running almost continually. It was too long ago for digital recorders. After three and a half hours, paper needed changing. As we reached over to flick it over, train goes past! Doh.”

“I got a bit annoyed with some kids one night, and told them I was there finding ghosts. That got rid of them.”

“I’ve perfected a look now which stops people coming over to ask what I’m doing. Sometimes you can actually see them bounce off the glare and change path.”

Thanks and big love to Dan Pope, Paul Malpas, Dan Boote, Adrian Popplewell, Chris Clayden, Phil Mudge and Tracy Thompson for sharing their experiences!

Office Acoustics – Demand Better!

What’s the problem with office acoustics? 

As Julian Treasure  points out in one of his TED talks, architects and designers tend to focus exclusively on the eyes. “They use them to design with, and they design for them”. As a result, many of us end up spending our working lives packed into open plan offices that sound a lot like this.

Recent research findings on office noise. 

Kim and Dear (2013) found that around 60% of office workers are dissatisfied with sound privacy, and around 30% are dissatisfied with noise level.

The most recent research from the Leesman Index paints an even worse picture:

  • Noise levels are the tenth most commonly cited “important part of an effective workplace” (behind desk, chair, computer equipment etc).
  • 75% of people consider noise important.
  • Only around 25% of people are satisfied with noise conditions in their workplace.

Why do we put up with this? Surely as acousticians, architects and interior designers, we have a responsibility to deliver spaces where people will perform at their best. Unfortunately, budget constraints are often an issues, and acoustics is neglected in favour of visible design elements.

From your ears straight to the bottom line.

This may be a huge mistake. Are you aware that this noise reduces the productivity of knowledge workers in an open plan office setting by 66%? (Banbury & Berry, 1998)

If we can work that much more effectively in good acoustic conditions, it stands to reason we can make our organisations more profitable, just by considering acoustic as well as architectural and interior design.

But let’s not stop there. If we reduce noise, and allow people appropriate conditions in which to work (which may include quiet rooms to retreat to), it’s not unreasonable to expect that this might make them healthier, and happier – meaning less profit lost due to sickness and recruitment (Evans & Johnson, 2000, Pejtersen et al 2011).

The spend on acoustic design is a one off. The benefits will last you forever.

Our campaign for better office acoustics.

Throughout 2014, dBx Acoustics is committed to raising awareness of the many benefits of good acoustic design in the workplace, and in particular office acoustics. We will be publishing a series of articles, audio demonstrations and examples of good and bad practice, as well as keeping you updated on our progress.

We have already started a survey to find out how people feel about sound in their workspaces. Please join in – it only takes a couple of minutes to complete.

If you are an architect, interior designer or office user who would like to get involved, let us know.

If you work in an office which you think is great, or terrible, we’d also love to hear from you; we want to gather data on what makes a good office!

How can dBx Acoustics help?

We are highly qualified, award-winning acoustic designers with significant experience of office acoustic design. We can work as part of your design team to make sure all aspects of acoustics are considered, from building services noise to reverberation control, ensuring good speech intelligibility. We can also advise on sound insulation between cellular spaces, preventing confidential conversations from being overheard and providing appropriate privacy to meeting rooms and offices.

We understand that your eyes will never be unimportant when designing a workspace, so we can suggest a range of acoustic options to fit with your aesthetic requirements.

We can also help you to consider the layout of your open plan space, positioning teams with differing noise generation and tolerance profiles to control disturbance as far as possible.

Our experience.

Our lead acoustic designer, Susan Witterick, has 16 years experience of office design, including well-known schemes such as:

New build:

  • Chiswick Place, London (with Arup Acoustics)
  • Airbus new office building (with Capita Symonds)
  • Matalan HQ, Knowsley (with Capita Symonds)

Fit out:

  • KPMG, various schemes (with Capita Symonds and dBx Acoustics)
  • Western Digital, Irvine, California (with Newson Brown Acoustics)
  • Dresdener Kleinwort, 30 Gresham Street (with Applied Acoustic Design)

 Most recently, dBx Acoustics has been involved in the design of high-privacy meeting space for a confidential client in London.

Act now – make a difference.

It’s never too late. Whether you are considering a new build or a move to a new office, or have issues in your existing offices, we can help. Contact us now for a complementary 30-minute consultation. With offices in London and Manchester, we consult nationwide.

References

Banbury, Simon, and Dianne C. Berry. “Disruption of office‐related tasks by speech and office noise.” British Journal of Psychology 89.3 (1998): 499-517.

Evans, Gary W., and Dana Johnson. “Stress and open-office noise.” Journal of Applied Psychology 85.5 (2000): 779.

Kim, Jungsoo, and Richard de Dear. “Workspace satisfaction: The privacy-communication trade-off in open-plan offices.” Journal of Environmental Psychology 36 (2013): 18-26.

Pejtersen, Jan H., et al. “Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices—a national cross sectional questionnaire survey.” Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health (2011): 376-382.

The Leesman Review 13-2 (May 2013) available at http://leesmanindex.com/leesman-resources

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