It’s not often that health privacy is a problem in a public library. Usually, online privacy would be more pertinent. But in this case study, the public library was located on the ground level of a council building. Libraries are usual quiet spaces, so any talking is obvious. The problem In the middle of the…

There are hundreds of studies relating to noise and office productivity. Specifically relating to open plan offices. Indeed, open plan offices have a reputation for being the worst possible environments for worker productivity. Or do they? What does the research say? One recent study found a causal link between open plan office noise and both…

According to research from this next paper in our Acoustics in the Sun blog series, including sound masking in your building design for the purposes of speech privacy indeed reduces your carbon footprint. If that is something that interests you, then read on. The paper, titled Balancing Speech Privacy and Embodied Carbon Reduction in Building…

White, pink, brown, blue… These are just some of the rainbow of colours that are used to describe particular shades of noise. But why colours? And what is the difference between a pink noise and a white noise? Does it even matter? These are all questions that clients have asked us, especially when coming to…

The Study Melbourne Student Centre (or “Hub”) is designed for students to access free support, information and contacts to help them enjoy living and studying in Victoria. The friendly Hub staff are experts in international education and can provide help and advice to students with a range of enquiries including financial hardship, accommodation, wellbeing and…

When I first started working in acoustics, I heard this phrase “acoustic ABCs”. At the time I didn’t realise that it was a literal acronym for three acoustic terms. So, what are these ABCs? Essentially, they are used to summarise the three acoustic concepts used to ameliorate problem noise. Absorb The A is for Absorb.…

This next blog in our Acoustics in the Sun series talks about the paper titled The Sonic Gathering Place Installation, Melbourne: User Experience and Post-Hoc Assessment of Sound Levels, by Lex Brown, Jordan Lacey and Tom Neudorfl. This was a particularly interesting paper because unlike many studies into the impact of biophilic design, it wasn’t conducted in…

Noise stress has been studied in relation to physical and mental health in the context of road and rail traffic noise. But what about in the office? Could noise-induced work-related stress in the office environment be something for which employers are responsible under WorkSafe guidelines? What is work-related stress? According to WorkSafe Victoria, work-related stress…

The peace and tranquility usually associated with yoga studios includes incense, sound bowls, lotus flowers, pictures of Buddha, and Gen X men who’ve renamed themselves in Sanskrit. It doesn’t ordinarily bring to mind sound masking. But when our client opened their yoga studio adjacent to a multiple noisy neighbours, even the chakras indicated something had…

Traffic noise is one of the more debilitating sounds a human being can experience, long term. This is because continual exposure can impact blood pressure, heart health, mental health, and more. That’s before any of the other negative impacts associated with pollution. We have covered the links between noise and health impacts in previous blogs.…