Azymuth Acoustics is appointed to monitor noise from acts during the Haigh Hall Live music festival in July 2011. The local authority requires noise monitoring at nearby residences to control noise levels from the performances to a limit of 65dBA (as per Noise Council Code of Practice on Environmental Noise Control at Concerts (1995). Acts featured at the event included Jedward (pictured), Peter Andre, The Coral and The Courteeners.

Acoustic design of a recording studio built within an existing industrial unit

• Nearby residential neighbours with a history of complaint
• Noise survey and review of building envelope; targets for mitigation of noise break-out
• Design of new independent internal walls and ceiling system for sound insulation between studio rooms and break-out to nearby houses.
• Specification of acoustic ventilation system serving studio rooms
• Design of a scheme of acoustic finishes throughout, on a tight budget.

The photos below show the (nearly) finished studio which at the time was being fitted with equipment. Our last visit was to carry out commissioning tests so we could advise on how effective the acoustics are in terms of sound insulation and achieving the target reverberation time. We’re happy to say that most aspects have been a success – the acoustic doors performed slightly less well than was quoted, but this may be corrected with some light remedial work. The live room sounds great, ‘live’ but controllable, initial recordings sound airy, not coloured by the room. The measured reverberation time in the live room is 0.48 seconds +/- 0.15 s between 250Hz – 4kHz, which would be indicative of the well controlled acoustic characteristics of the space.

Below are photos showing the development of the project; before and during works:

Review for compliance with HTM-08-01 / BREEAM Healthcare guidance

• Environmental noise survey
• Review of building envelope and internal elements
• Review of building services noise

Environmental noise survey and review of a proposed new school building on a site near the centre of Wigan. The site is in a suburban area and is affected by noise from mainline railway line and local roads.

Classrooms in the scheme are to be ventilated using automatic CO₂ level sensing roof windows. This presented a challenge in assessing the likely noise break-in to classrooms from high level, during times when roof windows are opened.

Review of surface finishes with the aim of compliance with target reverberation times for rooms of each type detailed in BB93: Acoustic Design of Schools.

The scheme involves construction of a new ‘Events Box’, to have an impressive curtain glazed facade and a state of the art interior for hosting large scale events.

TIC is a large scale venue for trade shows, concerts etc. The existing facilities are to be expanded to provide several new ‘break-out’ spaces from the existing large exhibition areas. In addition, a new 1500 capacity Events Box was proposed, with a wide brief of uses including conferences, gala dinners, exhibitions and snooker tournaments. The space is proposed to divide into 3 discreet sections to provide for multiple smaller events happening simultaneously. The divider partition screens were required to have excellent sound reduction properties while still being easily demountable.

Acoustic finishes in the Events Box also posed a challenge; amongst other issues, the required rigging for events meant that absorbing wall and ceiling finishes could only be installed where they would not get in the way of technical staff.

Azymuth undertook a review of the design of the scheme with reference to recognised standards for acoustic environments within offices / conference facilities including BS8233, BREEAM Offices 2008 and WHO guidance. This included room to room sound insulation of separating partitions and floors and identification of target reverberation times for each space including new circulation area, with a review of room designs in the context of speech intelligibility.

“As well as being obviously knowledgeable in their field, Azymuth are also very pragmatic. They can think around a challenge and come up with creative solutions to often complex site requirements. We have been particularly impressed by their ability to tread the sometimes difficult path between ticking legislative boxes and meeting clients’ aspirations very well.”

Ossie Airewele, Project Director, Austin Smith Lord Architects

Site plan, Kirkdale Scheme                         Existing Fire Station at Kirkdale

The plan involved both demolition of old fire station stock to be replaced with new, along with schemes to be built on fresh sites.

New buildings include community meeting and seminar rooms as well as rest rooms for on duty firemen which require a high level of privacy.

Element of each job

• Baseline environmental noise survey
• Review of building envelope with the aim of protecting users of the building from environmental noise

The majority of schemes are in the vicinity of busy roads thus a high level of noise mitigation was required to both rest rooms and meeting rooms, which generally face roads and have glazed curtain walls.

• Review of internal partitions in each scheme to ensure the right level of privacy between spaces, also reduce noise transmission from noisy rooms such as gymnasium.
• Assessment of the likely effect of generators, engine sirens etc. on nearby residences