ADF Industries was the mastermind behind 22 new soundproof rooms at Sydney’s MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development. Here’s how it executed the project – thought to be the largest installation of audiology rooms at a single location in the southern hemisphere.
When an institute that’s considered a global leader in auditory research relocated to a new building on Western Sydney University campus, one of the biggest challenges it faced was that it was next to NSW’s largest, busiest hospital.
The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development needed a quiet environment to test the brain. But moving to the new Westmead Innovation Quarter premises next to Westmead Hospital meant much of that important work was going to be carried out with a helipad, railways, and traffic nearby.
This environment was not conducive to silent testing and an optimal solution was needed.
Enter Melbourne-based All Duct Fabrications (ADF) Industries – experts in sound booth design, manufacture and installation. The company and Western Sydney University had previously worked together for more than a decade at MARCS’ original site.
Dr Leidy Castro-Meneses, technical team leader for the institute, says there were 10 booths on the initial site, some from ADF Industries.
“We liked the design and also ADF’s flexibility with booth design,” she says. “The managing director Jono Davies was able to custom size the booths for us.”
This was why the NSW-based MARCS chose the Victorian business over local providers to design, manufacture and install the 22 audiology rooms in the benchmark project. The institute occupies floors four to seven of the Westmead Innovation Quarter, a research, health, education and business hub.
“We had conversations and back and forth changes and iterations. Jono always had a workable solution to any request,” Dr Castro-Meneses says.
“We now have four types of booths, based on acoustic rating and electromagnetic rating, ranging in size from 6 sqm to 17 sqm. Jono worked with the building design as the building structure had to plan for the weight of the booths – the smallest weighing three tonnes.”
Something special
Davies recalls the university proposing the idea for the project about four years ago. “We went back and forth on concepts and designs,” he says. “Working with the researchers and scientists to develop what was required, it became clear this wasn’t just a pipe dream, but something very special.”
Dr Castro-Meneses, with a degree in psychology and a PhD in human cognition and brain sciences, says she loves research, in particular, understanding how the brain and mind process information and make inference. This is the field that MARCS researchers work in.
MARCS was formed as a research centre – Music and Auditory Research Centre – and initial research was in auditory perception including music.
“After 20 years, the institute expanded its scope but it remains a global leader in auditory research,” she says. “We look at how babies learn language, how being bilingual postpones some aspects of ageing and how music can elevate our mood.”
It’s also leading the way in understanding how the human brain develops across the lifespan. This includes research on how the brain responds and can be enhanced to visual, auditory, sensory and technological stimulus.
MARCS also paves the way in developing systems that can leverage evolutionary strategies to process information, Dr Castro-Meneses adds.
“For example, some researchers at our BabyLab investigate how babies from three months old perceive and categorise the world before they produce language, how cognition and language interact and influence each other,” she says.
“We also have the AgedLab where researchers investigate how the elderly brain ages and optimises wellbeing.”
Other researchers at the institute investigate how creativity and improvisation shape the human brain and benefits associated with this.
“We have researchers in biomedical sciences, trying to develop better technologies to improve medical sciences, for example, enhancing perception in people with perception deficiencies such as peripheral neuropathy which often leads to amputations,” she adds.
“The MARCS Institute also has the International Centre for Neuromorphic System, which is a team of dedicated engineers implementing technologies that mimic human processing.”
Controlled environment
But to carry out much of this important work, Dr Castro-Meneses says conducting research with human participants requires a controlled environment.
That’s where it’s collaboration with ADF comes in.
“For example, if you are testing how the brain perceives a talker in a noisy environment such as a party, you also need to test the brain in a quiet environment, so you can make comparisons,” she says.
“We often measure the brain’s electrical signals, for example, and these require isolation of other sources of electrical noise.
“Our rationale was that at Westmead, we could potentially have more sources of noise acoustically, electromagnetically and through vibration, such as flying helicopters passing the next door hospital, a light rail and heavy rail next door, people walking and talking in corridors next to labs and even air conditioning ramping up suddenly when the cooling system detects temperature changes in the whole floor.”
The open office plan with access to window views meant labs were designed to be inside, at the core of each floor, but this also translated to more people nearby, making potential noise – not ideal for lab testing, she adds.
AUSTRALIAN-MADE MATERIALS
As a leading Australian manufacturer of quality audiometric rooms and soundproof booths, ADF’s custom-made products feature in audiology clinics, hospitals, institutes, mining sites and mobile hearing testing vehicles worldwide.
The family-owned and operated business has existed for more than 50 years and has specialised in design and manufacture of hearing test rooms and sound booths for 30 years. It uses the latest technology, does everything inhouse and only uses Australian-made materials.
Davies, a mechanical engineer, says ADF has designed, constructed and installed hundreds of audiometric rooms and soundproof booths across Australia and overseas including New Zealand, Samoa and Singapore.
Most jobs are one to two booths and can be delivered within a few months but for bigger projects such as hospitals or institutes, the paperwork can take two months, and that’s when an assignment can go for a year.
“The MARCS Institute job was amazing,” he recalls. “It was in the middle of the COVID pandemic so that provided another layer of complexity because we weren’t allowed to cross the border for planning.
“All planning was done remotely over Zoom, with the main challenge not being able to see the site and environment.
“We couldn’t fly up to measure; other trades onsite had to provide information so we could be confident that the rooms would fit.”
ADF’s skilled team designed and manufactured the rooms in its Melbourne facility in Seaford and a fleet of 10 semi-trailers transported them to Sydney where they were stored before installation.
“It was our biggest job and the most booths installed in the southern hemisphere,” Davies says. All rooms were for different purposes from studies on equipment to testing patients.
RF attenuation
All rooms installed for the MARCS project were required to meet various standards. These included Australian Standards AS/NZS1269.4-2014 Occupational Noise Management Auditory Assessment, Australian Standards ISO-8253-2-2009, Acoustic Audiometric Test Methods 2014, and International Standards ISO8253.2-2009.
“In an exciting first for us, the rooms incorporated radiofrequency (RF) and electromagnetic frequency attenuation technology,” Davies says.
The business set out to achieve and beat the standard, he adds, going the extra mile and putting in a lot of background work to surpass the client’s expectations. This included engaging extra parties to ensure everything was spot on.
Planning started in 2020 and the job was completed in February 2022 with a team of installers fitting the rooms over eight weeks.
Davies says there were stressful times and late nights because of the scale of the project and its timing due to COVID. “But everyone – my family, my staff and the installation crew – came together to deliver an exceptional outcome. That’s what makes me proud,” he says.
“The result was 100% successful, and we were able to double the attenuation required in the RF (radiofrequency) rooms.”
Dr Castro-Meneses agrees. “The end result is that our researchers feel more stable knowing that vibration, acoustics and electromagnetic interference can be successfully managed during lab testing,” she says. “They’re very happy with the rooms’ efficiency.
“I recommend ADF because it’s flexible, serious about making required changes and punctual on delivery. Prices are also affordable.”
For more information see adfindustries.com.au.
