Noise Control
Is the council trying to shut you down?
At Millstone we stock d&b audiotechnik loudspeakers which have exceptional directivity control that can be used to focus the sound energy where required, and help keep off site noise within limits.
For outdoor events we have the sound map simulation software d&b NoizCalc which uses the loudspeaker behavior and the Google Earth landscape around the venue to model the flow of sound and display how the sound levels vary away from the site. This allows the noise levels to be predicted before the event and therefore help towards compliance to noise restrictions and to keep the council and neighbours happy.
Noise control is not just about keeping to the sound limits, but also informing people in advance, planning ahead with the speaker system, and working face to face with people during the event to modify the sound if people are concerned. We are experienced at this and consider noise control as part of our design.
In 2016 we were tasked with a new event – Electric Beach. We achieved the loudest audience levels and the quietest off-site levels for the event compared to previous years.
I had the pleasure of working with Chris and his team at the Electric Beach festival in July 2016.
I was asked to run the sound monitoring for the event as there had been issues resulting in complaints from local people the previous year.
The site is not easy to manage sound as it is a beach with a hotel at one end and a residential area at the other. We had a plan that was approved by the council and with Chris’s help it was executed perfectly which has resulted in no representations from local people when the license was applied for 2017.
Electric Beach Festival 2016
V-Series speakers on Fistral Beach car park, Newquay. A mobile NTi XL2 Audio and Acoustic Analyser was used to measure off-site sound levels, and SMAART v8 was used at FoH to predict live sound levels in advance.
