Voice Care Monitor Commercialised

On the 31st March 2014, the Politechnico University of Turin announced that a mechatronics company were intending to commercialise the Voice-Care Vocal Load monitoring system. The trails for which were piloted during last summer by the Acoustics Group of London South Bank University with the singers from the Royal Academy of Music. The full story is here

Mike Barron gives a visiting lecture

On the 28th March 2014 Prof Mike Barron from Bath University visited the Acoustics Group. During the day he presented his research on physical scale modelling of concert halls to the IOA and MSc students. Mike then enjoyed a pleasant lunch and a look a the new lab equipment.

Visit to the Health & Safety Lab

On the 26th March 2014 Dr Stephen Dance visited to the Health and Safety Labs at Buxton, Derbyshire. Discussions were held as to possible future collaboration in the areas of noise and vibration exposure. It was also a very beautiful town! Kind thanks go to Liz Brueck and Paul Pitts.

MSc course reaccredited

On the 25th March 2014 CIBSE, the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers, reaccredited all the courses of the Building Services, Sustainability and Acoustics programme, which includes the MSc in Environmental and Architectural Acoustics. The accreditation will run from 2014-2019. Well done team!

Steve awarded the IoA Tyndall Medal

Dr Stephen Dance has been awarded the Institute of Acoustics Tyndall Medal. The Tyndall Medal is awarded to a UK acoustician, preferably under the age of 40, for achievements and services in the field of acoustics. A plenary lecture will be presented at the 40th Anniversary of the Institute of Acoustics

BS4142 Draft Standard Workshop

On the 3rd April 2014 the Institute of Acoustics will hold a discussion workshop on the new draft of the BS4142 standard. The meeting will follow a half day format and will be held in the Keyworth building>The student price is £20!

IOA Certificate to Run in April 2014

On the 22/23/24 and 25th April 2014 the Acoustics Group will run the Institute of Acoustic Certification of Competence for Environmental Noise Measurements. The examination and assessment will take place on the 16th May 2014. The course is open to anyone with an interest in acoustics. Please contact Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina, gomezagl@lsbu.ac.uk for more details

Abstract submitted for the 40th Anniversary

PhD candidate Nick Durup has submitted an abstract for the Institute of Acoustics 40th Anniversary conference. This special conference will be held at Birmingham's NEC in October 2014. The paper is entitled, "Voice problems and acoustics in schools - an online survey of teachers". The presentation has been arranged for Speech and Hearing Group session.

Abstract submitted to Forum Acusticum

PhD Candidate Gizem Okten submitted her abstract to Forum Acusticum to be held in Krakow, Poland during September of 2014. The abstract was entitled, "Pilot investigation into the vocal load of Opera singers" to be presented in the session called, "Music and Acoustics of Rehearsal Rooms".  Should be a good one!

Peter Mapp awarded his PhD

On the 10th March 2014 Peter Mapp was awarded his doctoral thesis. Peter's doctorate was entitled, "The application of STI to Public Address and Assistive Listening Systems". The thesis was a collection of related papers with a manuscript linking the research results. Well done to Peter and thanks goes to the external examiners.

Speech Intelligibility Lecture by Peter Mapp

On the 7th March 2014 Peter Mapp visited the Acoustics Group to give his now annual seminar on speech intelligibility. Peter included some enjoyable demonstrations of processed speech signals and their intelligibility levels. There appeared to be a lot of work need to understand the pyschoacoustics of cognitive speech processing!

Anne Kyyro Quinn Material Tests

On the 7th March 2014, the Microflown in-situ absorption apparatus was taken to design studio of Anne Kyyro Quinn. Eight beautiful panels were measured to establish their absorption characteristics  in the afternoon along with calibration measured of known acoustic foam. Nice to be surrounded by art for a change!

London Underground Limited Visit

On the 5th March 2014 London Underground Limited visited the Acoustics Group. Noran Gorasia and Avril Carroll discussed future opportunities for collaboration on improving the PA/VA system on the tube and reducing noise nuisance from nearby residents. Ideas were flying around!

IOA and Brighton Science Festival Event

On the 28th February 2014 Dr Luis Gomez attended the joint IOA Southern Branch /  Musical Acoustics Group at Brighton's Science Festival. The day meeting was entitled, "Creative Soundscapes 2014". Prof. Trevor Cox, Prof. Jian Kang, Peter Rogers and Dan Pope presented their latest research in to urban soundscapes and their design.