News Release

Designing workplaces with sound disturbances in mind

Investigators are using physics to understand how architectural aspects of workplace design change the way sound, especially music, conversation and machine noise, affect workers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Acoustical Society of America

Experiment in an Anechoic Room

image: Takeshi Akita's group at Tokyo Denki University carried out an experiment designed to determine how workers feel about sounds they don't really notice. The experiment was carried out in an anechoic room. view more 

Credit: Takeshi Akita

SAN DIEGO, December 5, 2019 -- Workplaces are full of sound, most of which is not helpful to workers trying to do their jobs. Scientists are using physics to understand how conversation, music and other ambient noise is experienced by individuals in a variety of work situations.

Takeshi Akita, of Tokyo Denki University, will present a talk on "Effects of sound source and its direction on subjects' impression of soundscape in workplace." Soundscape is like a landscape but refers to the type of sound, its loudness and the direction from which it arrives at the listener.

Akita's talk will take place at the 178th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, which will occur Dec. 2-6, at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. The talk is part of a session on architectural soundscapes to be held in the Windsor Room at the hotel at 1:50 p.m. PT on Thursday, Dec. 5.

Akita's group carried out an experiment designed to determine how workers feel about sounds they don't really notice. Twenty individuals were exposed to three kinds of sound: conversation, music and a type of sound associated with machine noise. The sound was presented to the research subjects from four different directions at a sound pressure level of between 50 and 60 A-weighted decibels (dBA).

Sound pressure levels are normally given in units of decibels, but environmental noise, such as traffic, machinery, etc. is usually described in terms of dBA. Noise levels of 85 dBA and above are likely to cause hearing damage.

The researchers found 50 dBA of conversation or music that came from behind the research subjects did not bother them. However, 60 dBA of music presented from either the right or left side bothered the individuals as much as 50 dBA of what the scientists refer to as "signal sound," or machine noise.

"We suggest that the soundscape in workplaces should be planned with attention to the person's behavior, the meaning and volume of the sound source, and its spatial layout," Akita said.

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Akita's presentation 4pAA1, "Effects of sound source and its direction on subjects' impression of soundscape in workplace," will be at 1:50 p.m. PT, Thursday, Dec. 5, in the Windsor room of the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.

MORE MEETING INFORMATION

USEFUL LINKS

Main meeting website: http://acousticalsociety.org/asa-meetings/

Technical program: https://asa2019fall.abstractcentral.com/planner.jsp

Press Room: http://acoustics.org/world-wide-press-room/

WORLDWIDE PRESS ROOM

In the coming weeks, ASA's Worldwide Press Room will be updated with additional tips on dozens of newsworthy stories and with lay language papers, which are 300-500 word summaries of presentations written by scientists for a general audience and accompanied by photos, audio and video. You can visit the site during the meeting at http://acoustics.org/world-wide-press-room/.

PRESS REGISTRATION

We will grant free registration to credentialed journalists and professional freelance journalists. If you are a reporter and would like to attend, contact the AIP Media Line at 301-209-3090. For urgent requests, staff at media@aip.org can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips or background information.

LIVE MEDIA WEBCAST

Press briefings will be webcast live from the conference Tuesday, Dec. 3, in Hospitality Suite 3103 of the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. Register at https://webcast.aipwebcasting.com/go/asa-dec3-19 to watch the live webcast. The schedule will be posted at the same site as soon as it is available.

ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world's leading journal on acoustics), Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. For more information about ASA, visit our website at http://www.acousticalsociety.org.


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