Noise Control in the Tufts University Radio Station

The student run radio station at Tufts University has adjacent recording and broadcast studios along a common exterior wall. Narrow storage and control rooms make up the common wall between the studios. The storage room houses noisy computer servers, a window A/C, a hollow core door into the recording studio with a sizable gap at the bottom, and see through windows between the studios. The control room is well insulated acoustically from both studios. DJ's in the main studio monitor broadcasts at loud volumes that produce audible noise in the recording studio. The noise reduction between the studios was measured with a loudspeaker in the broadcast studio. Acoustic transmission through the storage room was determined from the sum of the noise reduction into the storage room and from the storage room to the recording studio. Contributions from paths through the common hallway and outside the building through windows were determined similarly. Relative contributions for the paths helped identify lightweight doors, leaky windows, and other weak points which must be treated to reduce recording studio noise. High ambient noise in the recording studio is due to street noise on the busy intersection below where leaky windows with A/C units need treatment.