| How to Avoid Disturbing The
Neighbours by Allan McGowan |
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 As the number of Festivals and large-scale events throughout Europe
continues to grow and more and more encroach upon City centres and built up
areas, with the sanctioning, encouragement and often direct involvement of local
authorities, the inescapable truth that ‘one man’s music being another’s noise
pollution’ is a growing problem.. With more and more organisers and promoters
facing court action, and the very real possibility of one City authority
department having to take action against another, as a result of infringements
of noise regulations, expert help in sound management is a vital component and
an increasingly serious consideration in the pre-planning of events
In Belgium earlier this year Clear Channel Entertainment (CCE) were in court awaiting a judge's ruling on whether it breached noise regulations at its "I Love Techno" event in 2001at the local 35,000- capacity Farmers' Expo, Ghent. The local Velodrome had already been taken to task for running raves considered to be too loud. Once licence regulations have been breached Belgian courts rule that profits made by the promoter are deemed to be ‘illegal’, and have been basing fines on the gross box office. Leading to the possible imposition of demands for amounts in excess of a million Euros. There are experts who can help, in Holland earlier this year Vip News met with a company that specialises in this area, they explained how they apply their expertise. DB CONTROL: John "Cable" Hessing is one of the founders and director of dBControl and has a long history in the Dutch live music scene. Born in 1953, with a background as musician and electronic engineer, he started Protone in 1981 as one of the first Dutch PA rental companies to tour with English and American artists in England and the continent, such as Jah Wobble, Jesus and Mary Chain, Cocteau Twins, John Hiatt and many others. As a result of all this he is well known in the business. Marcel Kok started in sound engineering in 1983 when he was 16 years of age. After studying Electrotechnics at the University of Twente he started up in acoustic consultancy. He has also completed an MBA business course. In 1998 Marcel met John Hessing at the Lowlands festival. Marcel had arranged a measurement set -up with a wireless GSM connection and Hessing was responsible for the sound level limits. They had similar views and got on; as a result in 2000 they came together to start the company dBControl. Since then, their concept of sound level limits and active sound level control has been implemented in the planning and operation of more and more events. The cooperation between John and Marcel is the essence of dBControl. Marcel handles Research and Development and the acoustic reports while John handles the contracts and music industry contacts. Their joint practical experience has taught them how to adapt to the varying circumstances of different events. In principle active sound control entails measuring Leq levels at the emission points and measuring the Leq levels at emission points, displaying these levels in real time on a centrally placed computer. Information provided by these measurements will then be checked with the levels, as stated in the licence. If a level is exceeded, then the computer system is able to show which stage or sound system is responsible for any excess and corrections can be made to avoid licence problems. In practice this is a lot more complex than as described above. There are many different factors that influence the transmission of radiated energy. Wind speed and wind direction, air humidity and air temperature have a great influence on sound radiation. Also the types of loudspeaker and their direction are of great importance.
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All sound sources, that are active on festivals (main PA systems, smaller systems in use at backstage areas, selling points and markets), are put into a calculation spreadsheet. In advance calculations are made between emission points and immission points. These results are then aligned with the festival timetable. The result is that we can calculate which stage at what time (related to the licence) is producing which level. Therefore we have a tool, which enables us to predict the cumulated sound levels produced by the programmed artists. If the sound level limits allow for very little ‘sound space’, we can state maximum levels for individual stages and therefore precisely programme to have the right act at the right time. Following all these calculations and reflections, the actual sound control during the festival time then has to be undertaken. With stated levels at the various stages, which may vary in time due to the licence restrictions (day, evening and night period) and stated levels at the official measuring points (these affect the neighbours!!!) the remaining problem is the previously mentioned metrological circumstances that can have a great influence on the final result. We must be able to respond quickly to any changes and with the software that we have developed, we can forecast a trend in the running Leq, as a result we have time to adjust the levels of the system that are responsible for exceeding the limits. Without the type of system described above it is almost impossible to react in time to avoid exceeding the sound level, in circumstances dictated by 10 different stages and several other sound sources The benefit for festival promoters is obvious, as well as the avoidance of lawsuits and heavy financial fine. there’s the danger of discontinuation of important events for the live music industry for the next few years. Recent projects overseen by dB Control include The LowlandsFestival 2003 (50.000 visitors), Innercity 2003 (50.000) both in the Netherlands, I Love Techno 2003 (40.000) Belgium. The Company are very active in the development of their reasonably unique business, recent marketing and acquisition actions in the past weeks have resulted in promising projects, their position in the market is in the upper levels, working with and for very professional promoters and large events. The main and obvious reasons for this market position is that they have the money and they are willing to invest in developments like dBControl. As Jon says, “We are continuously involved in developments in the audio
branch. Line arrays, bass creators, monitor systems etc. Calculation programs
like EASE make it easier for PA rental companies to optimise their system for
the audience area. However there is still the need for a real-time sound guard
system to make the link between the outside world and the event area. dBControl
is positioned between the PA/audio world (Audio Engineering Society) and the
acoustic world (acoustic society). Environmental control is applied in
real-time, which makes us different from traditional forms of environmental
control like sound level logging etc. We're busy with our system to make it
complete wireless, there's now a wireless component placed in the surroundings
and a wired part in the event area. We’re busy with connections to the Ethernet
protocol and Internet couplings. Also we continue to make strategic decisions as
to whether we should concentrate on product development, or continue to improve,
develop and profit from our consultancy services. We're planning to do some
sound radiation measurements on two topics in The main goal of these measurements will be the discernment of unwanted sound radiation to neighbours. The use of line-arrays and controllable low arrays will be a solution to get more level on the dance floor or audience area and less noise in the surroundings. – So, these chaps may make the difference between alienating the neighbours and picking up a hefty fine, and securing goodwill and the venue for future successful events! Contact : www.dbcontrol.nl . Marcel Kok <info@dbcontrol.nl> |