• Balancing Aesthetics and Acoustics at Osler Bluff Ski Club

    How to Ensure Your Acoustics Don’t Go Downhill Nestled on the shores of Georgian Bay in the Blue Mountains, Osler Bluff is a private ski club that prides itself on its beautiful scenery and great skiing. Since 1949, members have enjoyed the slopes then retreated to the cozy main clubhouse. However, there was an issue with the lounge’s acoustics. Members had raised concerns about the lounge being too loud, making it difficult to have conversations during après-ski activities and events. When the Osler’s clubhouse underwent an extensive expansion and renovation in 2016, the club’s architect consulted with Aercoustics to help create a better experience in the lounge. The club wanted to reduce lunchtime and après-ski noise levels, provide a better user experience during presentations and improve speech intelligibility. A key objective was addressing the acoustic impact of a new open concept plan for the formerly enclosed Founders Lounge. There was […]

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  • Been there, done that: Key Learnings from Ontario as New York Fast Tracks Renewable Energy Projects

    Since the mid-2000s, electricity generation in the U.S. has slowly shifted from coal to natural gas and renewables. Renewable energy growth may accelerate in 2021 since the new administration campaigned on a promise to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and invest $2 trillion in clean energy. New York State is already taking a big step forward on this front with an ambitious goal of obtaining 70 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 as part of a shift away from fossil fuels and carbon emitting power production. This is ambitious because over the past few years, renewable energy development has been sluggish because of a long, drawn out regulatory permitting process called Article 10. First enacted in 2011, the siting law takes years to navigate and very few renewable energy projects have received final approval as a result. But in the fall of 2020, the State came out […]

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  • wind farm noise

    Don’t Let Concerns Fall on Deaf Ears: How to Manage Wind Farm Noise Complaints

    Home to the world’s ninth largest wind generating fleet, Canada is a global leader in wind energy with strong and stable growth year after year. According to the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CANWEA) (now known as the Canadian Renewables Association), Canada finished 2019 with 13,413 MW of wind energy capacity, enough to power approximately 3.4 million homes...

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  • Opening the Curtain: Reimagining Performing Arts Centres After the Pandemic

    The pandemic has impacted just about every part of the economy in Canada. The entertainment industry, including Performing Arts Centres is no exception. By all accounts, the industry has suffered severely, with some reports showing that 95 per cent of live events have been cancelled due to COVID-19 and 77 per cent of people who have been working in the entertainment industry have lost 100 per cent of their income. Unfortunately, social distancing is the opposite of what we have come to expect from performing arts centres. Performance spaces are designed to operate at high occupancy and have people gather in close quarters to share an incredible experience and foster connection. The buildings were not designed to be able to operate under pandemic scenarios, and so most have been rendered useless. Most buildings have sat empty for months, wreaking havoc to arts organizations. Designing Pandemic Ready Venues Over the past […]

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  • Advance Your Career

    Career Growth: Advance Your Career Within a Company

    If you talk to people at Aercoustics, you will find many who started their career as an intern and experienced tremendous career growth as he or she climbed the ranks. We recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of one of our colleagues who started his career here as an intern...

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  • Acoustic Sciences: A Sound Career for Musicians

    If you work in the acoustical sciences field, you usually have colleagues passionate about music. Whether you play an instrument, sing or produce music, acoustics is a great career choice for anyone naturally inclined or enthusiastic about music.

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  • Pitch Perspectives

    Not Your Grandmother’s Church

    How Music is Challenging the Traditional Church Design For most people, their vision of an old church is a cathedral with stone halls and stained-glass windows. Early church design is typically large and rectangular in shape with a tall, gabled roof. The music, such as Gregorian chants, was created to suit the room’s acoustics and long reverberation times.

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  • How to Keep Your Transit Project on Track

    The growth of cities is increasing the demands on transit systems. Whether it is above ground or below, municipalities everywhere are facing increased pressure to enhance transit services and expedite their transit projects to alleviate the traffic on existing systems and busy roads.

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  • Pitch Perspectives

    Can You Repeat That? Optimizing Acoustics with Speech Intelligibility

    Humans have used speech to communicate for thousands of years. Our brains and ears have evolved in tandem to optimize our ability to communicate via speech. When it comes to making different sounds, our vocal reproduction system is quite a marvel of versatility. For example, the Taa language spoken in parts of Botswana and Namibia is believed by most linguists to have the largest sound inventory with more than 100 consonants.

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  • How Engineering Peer Reviews Can Help Reduce Risk

    Mistakes happen. In the best-case scenario, we apologize and move on. But when it comes to mistakes on the job, whether it be in healthcare, education, law or engineering, a mistake can be costly.

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