Southern Branch Meeting & AGM

The Southern Branch invites you to a practical session about measuring reverberation time and how equipment can make a difference, run by Matt Torjussen.

Despite standardisation through BS EN ISO 3382 and BS EN ISO 354, reverberation time measurement permits significant procedural flexibility whilst maintaining compliance with standards. This flexibility includes choices around sample rate, averaging methods, averaging time, and determination of the initial "steady level". These processing variables are often hidden within proprietary sound level meter algorithms, meaning practitioners may be unaware of their impact on results. This presentation systematically examines the signal processing stages involved in calculating reverberation time, using real measurements from real rooms with both impulsive and interrupted pink noise sources. The findings highlight the importance of critically reviewing decay curves and regression lines before accepting measurement results.

Matt is an acoustician with experience across buildings, turbomachinery, product design, energy, environment and transport. He holds an MSc from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the University of Southampton and is a Chartered Engineer and corporate member of the Institute of Acoustics. Matt is currently reading for a PhD in psychoacoustics at the University of Salford through the Sustainable Sounds Futures CDT.

This meeting will include a practical demonstration, and you are invited to bring your own sound level meter to compare how it calculates reverberation time against the other attendees sound level meters. If you do not have one, KP acoustics will have a small quantity for attendees to borrow

As always, the event is free to members of the IoA, as well as to students and the public. The meeting will be held in-person at KP Acoustics Research Labs in Totton, online on Zoom and will also be recorded. The practical part of the session will be for in-person participants only for obvious reasons. CPD certification will be offered for attendance, wait for the QR code that will be shown/shared at the end of the presentation.

Please arrive at 6pm for networking over tea and biscuits. The session will start promptly at 6.30pm.

If you have any queries please contact Reena Mahtani (reena.mahtani@stantec.com).

The Southern Branch AGM will also be held at this meeting. AGM documentation is attached to this email, and a copy has also been uploaded to this event for reference.

For registration, follow this link: https://www.cpdtag.com/app.php?event=24CA7FB6B69E7501EAD2AB926B9D466