Octave 11 – The Data Centre Fast Track Now Runs Through Acoustics. See What Ontario’s Draft Rules Require.

Posted by Aercoustics Engineering Ltd / Sep 4, 2026

Ontario’s Data Centre Playbook Wants Quieter Facilities

As Canada races to build the data centre capacity a sovereign AI strategy demands, Ontario is moving to make sure that growth doesn’t come at the expense of the communities hosting it. The province’s draft Data Centre Playbook framework landed for public comment on August 13, with a final version expected this fall. It puts noise control on the list of requirements a project has to meet to earn a fast-track connection to the grid, right as Oakville, Mississauga, and other municipalities weigh their own moratoriums. Aercoustics’ President and CEO Steve Titus discusses what that means for developers: the acoustic science behind quiet data centres isn’t new, and firms that bring real data into site selection now will be the ones building fastest once the framework is final. Read Blog

The Policy Gap: Why Schools Need Real Acoustic Standards

As students and staff return to school, Ontario still has no provincial framework for classroom acoustics, even as school construction accelerates in growing communities and repair backlogs pile up in older ones. The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario projects 74.6% of school buildings will be out of a state of good repair by 2033-34, up from 37.4% today. In a recent piece for Canadian Interiors, Aercoustics’ Dónal Finnerty makes the case for provincial standards covering reverberation time, background noise, speech intelligibility, and sound isolation: measures that are well understood and can be inexpensive to design for early, but costly to retrofit later.

Experts in Action

INTER-NOISE 2026

Ben White, Technical Director, and Duncan Halstead, VP of Operations, took Aercoustics to the other side of the world this August, presenting three papers at Inter-Noise 2026 in Adelaide, Australia. Ben dug into two problems: Curtain Wall Flanking Paths and Insights from Vibration Measurements and Modelling and Mitigation of Isolator Surge Modes in Vibration Isolation Systems. Duncan discussed a long-term monitoring and modelling study on Temperature Inversions Affecting Propagation of Wind Turbine Noise. Inter-Noise brings together noise control engineers from around the world. Congratulations to Ben and Duncan on representing Aercoustics on the international stage.

Amplify AEC Las Vegas 2026

Anthony Roppa, VP of Sales and Marketing, represented Aercoustics at the Society for Marketing Professional Services’ Amplify AEC conference in Las Vegas. He presented From Participation to Performance: Structuring Technical Teams for BD Results, on how firms get technical staff meaningfully involved in business development. His argument: engagement isn’t the goal on its own. Structure, alignment, and accountability are what turn a technical team’s participation into results a firm can actually measure. Congratulations to Anthony on representing Aercoustics at Amplify AEC and sharing his wealth of knowledge to the wider industry.

Culture

Blue Jays & Twelfth Night

Summer wrapped up with two nights out for the team. First, the office emptied out for the ballpark, where the team caught a Toronto Blue Jays game over hot dogs and a few innings of good-natured heckling. Later in August, the team headed to High Park for Twelfth Night, part of the Dream in High Park series, an evening of Shakespeare performed outdoors as the sun went down. Each was a different kind of night out, but with the same idea. Get the team together outside of the office and celebrate what Toronto has to offer. We’re grateful for the chance to do both.

Discover More from Aercoustics

Explore more of our work through project updates, thought leadership, and industry news.