London, UK - Noise Measurement at the Notting Hill Carnival - Newsletter
September 2008
NoiseMeters Limited provided the equipment for the noise assessment
at the Notting Hill Carnival in London, England.
Soundguard Acoustics
Ltd were contracted to undertake the first Control of Noise
at Work risk assessment for this year’s London Notting
Hill Carnival and selected NoiseMeters Ltd to provide the noise
monitoring instruments.
London Notting Hill Carnival has existed since 1965 and now in
its 44th year has grown to become the largest street festival in
Europe. Carnival provides an annual reminder that music, good times
and dancing will bring over 1.5 million people together in a defining
moment of multiculturism. The traditional Caribbean roots of the
Trinidadian and Barbadian communities is voiced by the music of
Steelpan and drums which now sit alongside the Jamaican sound systems
which arrived in the seventies. Stacks of battered speakers and
amplifiers have become one of the quintessential images of Notting
Hill Carnival, the noise levels of which is possibly only outdone
by the parade route and the thousands of masquerades. |
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NoiseMeters Ltd provided Soundguard Acoustics Ltd with 30 Cirrus CR:110A
Dosebadges, 2 RC:110A Dosebadge readers, and 3 Cirrus Type 1 integrating
Sound Level Meters to support the Cirrus equipment that Soundguard already
uses. Rob Shaddick is the Director of Soundguard Acoustics Ltd and said
that: ‘Soundguard already uses Cirrus equipment and we were
confident in hiring further Cirrus equipment to fulfil this contract,
NoiseMeters could provide us with the quantity of equipment we required
and were very supportive in achieving this. The correspondence was professional,
the equipment arrived on time and the whole service represented excellent
value for money. We would certainly recommend and use NoiseMeters Ltd
for future contracts’.
Working with the London Notting Hill Carnival Ltd, the London Metropolitan
Police and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Soundguard Acoustics
Ltd Consultants formulated a plan that would reveal the likely noise
dose of carnival marshals, judges, security and traders as well as the
level of noise at policing locations, first aid points, and entry points
to the carnival route. In addition the sound level outputs of the passing
floats, background levels, noise mapping and a complete assessment of
all 40 static sound systems was undertaken.
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After the contract Rob Shaddick reported: ‘The Cirrus
Dosebadges and Cirrus Sound Level Meters that NoiseMeters Ltd has
provided us have been terrific, my consultants were happy and confident
in using the equipment and the way in which the equipment was arranged
and delivered in a short time scale was excellent. NoiseMeters
Ltd has been fundamental in helping us to achieve this contract.
Our approach from the outset has been to maintain the vibrant and
noisy tradition of carnival, whilst reducing the noise exposure
risk of those working within Carnival, a challenge in itself but
the Cirrus equipment provided by NoiseMeters Ltd has helped us
to achieve this and will be fundamental in the planning of next
years London Notting Hill Carnival.’ |
For more information on the equipment used, please visit the doseBadge
Noise Dosimeter and the CR811C Sound
Level Meter pages.
This article was written by Rob Shaddick of Soundguard
Acoustics Ltd. << News Stories |
