Accurate prediction of noise levels from new developments such as roads, railways and industrial plant requires the involvement of an acoustics specialist.

The Institute of Acoustics is offering free affiliation to all students in order to help them understand the subject better and how it overlaps with so many professions, from architecture to medicine, and from music to zoology.

The benefits include:

* Twice yearly e-zine, Sound Bites, with acoustics news, people profiles and job tips

* Great networking opportunities

* Discounted attendance at paying events

* Invitations to free branch meetings in their area

* Monthly newsletter.

As you can see, the website is now live. Activation emails will shortly be sent to all members so they can log in. After that renewal invoices will be emailed. Please check your junk/spam folders as well as your inbox and, as always, we would be grateful if you would pay promptly. 

Thank you for your patience.

The Institute of Acoustics has welcomed the publication by RenewableUK of research and a proposed planning condition to deal with the issue of amplitude modulation (AM) of noise from wind turbines. 

The Northern Ireland Executive has added its endorsement to the IOA's Good Practice Guide to the application of ETSU-R-97 for wind turbine noise assessment. In doing so, it joins the governments in England, Scotland and Wales in approving the guide.

Professor Keith Attenborough, IOA Education Manager, has been awarded the "Médaille Etrangère" (Foreign Medal) 2013 by the French Acoustical Society (SFA) in recognition of his " wide contribution to acoustics and his numerous collaborations with French acousticians".
Keith, who helped organise the highly successul joint IOA/SFA conference in Nantes in 2012, will be presented with the medal at the French Acoustical Congress in Poitiers (22-25 April) when he will give a plenary lecture on "Using audio-frequency waves at porous and rough surfaces".

The IOA has published for consultation the final two supplementary guidance notes (SGNs) to support its A Good Practice Guide to the Application of ETSU-R-97 for the Assessment and Rating of Wind Turbine Noise (the GPG).

The notes cover sound power level data (SGN 3) and noise propagation over water for onshore wind turbines (SGN 6). They can be viewed below. The closing date for the receipt of comments is Friday 31 January 2014.

Happy New Year! Welcome to the Institute of Acoustics blog.

I’m thrilled to introduce this blog which will be written by a member of the IOA Young Members’ Group (YMG) or Publications committee each month. We will use this opportunity to cover a wide range of topics over the following months in line with the Institute’s aim to maintain and improve science and engineering education, research and practice.

The aim of the Underwater Acoustics Group (UAG) is to attract the interest and commitment of all professionals from industry, academia and government who work in underwater acoustics in order to help advance our understanding of this field. 

The Speech and Hearing Group provides a forum for IOA members with an interest in acoustic aspects of speech and hearing. These include speech intelligibility, perception and production, hearing protection, audiology, assistive and other technologies for speech and hearing, and speech and language therapy.