Featured Articles
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Data centre noise 101 for project teams, where the noise actually comes from
September 14, 2026Most data centre noise summaries are written as a list of equipment. Chillers, cooling towers, fans, transformers, generators. The list is accurate and not especially useful, because it does not… -
Noise risk and community acceptance in BESS project design
July 3, 2026Battery energy storage systems are one of the fastest-growing infrastructure categories in Australia. As installations increase in scale and move closer to residential and rural communities, acoustic performance is becoming… -
The new acoustic challenge of hyperscale data centres
July 1, 2026The acoustic profile of a hyperscale data centre bears little resemblance to the industrial facilities that informed the noise control frameworks most engineers have historically applied to large-scale mechanical plant….
All Articles
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Noise modelling is only as good as its inputs, five data gaps that change project outcomes
October 30, 2026Environmental noise prediction has become very good. The calculation methods are standardised, the software implementations are mature, and two competent practitioners given the same inputs will produce closely comparable results…. -
Cumulative noise, what happens when every plant item meets its individual target
October 26, 2026A specification requires that no individual item of plant exceed 45dB(A) at the nearest receiver. Eight items are installed. Every one is measured at commissioning and every one complies. The… -
Emergency generators, the short-duration noise source that can dominate a data centre assessment
October 23, 2026A common position in early data centre planning runs roughly as follows. The generators are for emergencies. They will run perhaps twenty hours a year. Continuous mechanical plant is the… -
Designing generator intake and discharge paths without creating an acoustic weak point
October 19, 2026A generator enclosure is an unusual acoustic object. Almost every other enclosure on a project is trying to be closed. This one has to move an enormous volume of air… -
Attenuator sizing, balancing insertion loss, airflow and pressure drop
October 16, 2026An attenuator selection sheet usually contains two numbers that people look at and one that decides whether the selection works. The two are insertion loss and pressure loss. The one… -
When an acoustic louvre is the right choice and when it is not
October 12, 2026An acoustic louvre is asked to do three incompatible things through the same aperture. It has to let air through, keep water out, and attenuate sound. Each of those improves… -
Insertion loss, transmission loss and Rw, choosing the right metric for the job
October 9, 2026A mechanical engineer sizing a duct attenuator, an architect specifying a plantroom wall and a project manager reviewing a supplier submission can all be looking at a number followed by… -
The acoustic specification brief, what consultants need from suppliers at tender stage
October 5, 2026Three suppliers return prices against the same acoustic scope. The spread is forty per cent. Procurement reads that as a commercial finding, asks the lowest bidder to confirm compliance, receives… -
Tonal noise in BESS, why a compliant dB(A) figure may not tell the whole story
October 3, 2026An overall A-weighted level answers one question. How much acoustic energy arrives at the receiver, weighted roughly for the sensitivity of human hearing. It does not answer the question residents… -
Designing BESS sites for social licence, what noise planning can contribute
October 2, 2026In August 2026 the ABC reported on community concern about a proposed 520 megawatt battery energy storage facility at Uriarra Station in the Australian Capital Territory, around two kilometres from… -
BESS noise 101, fans, chillers, inverters and transformers explained
September 28, 2026Battery energy storage is often described as quiet technology, and at the cell level that is true. There is no combustion, no reciprocating machinery and no prime mover. Everything around… -
BESS noise starts with source data, what to request from OEMs before procurement
September 25, 2026A published noise impact assessment for a battery energy storage project at Glen Innes in northern New South Wales contains a sentence that should be read carefully by anyone procuring… -
Why rooftop plant changes the noise risk for data centres
September 21, 2026Putting heat rejection plant on the roof is usually a sound decision. It frees ground level area for electrical infrastructure and access, it shortens pipe runs, it keeps plant away… -
Acoustic headroom, the design allowance that protects future data centre expansion
September 18, 2026Data centre projects reserve capacity as a matter of course. Electrical infrastructure is sized with spare feeder capacity. Cooling is designed with redundancy and a growth path. Structure is built… -
Data centre noise 101 for project teams, where the noise actually comes from
September 14, 2026Most data centre noise summaries are written as a list of equipment. Chillers, cooling towers, fans, transformers, generators. The list is accurate and not especially useful, because it does not… -
What Australia’s data centre boom means for acoustic design before DA submission
September 11, 2026In August 2026 the NSW Government published the NSW Data Centre Guidelines, which record around 60 data centres already operating in the state and 19 projects in the State Significant… -
Infrastructure projects are being asked to do more than ever before
August 31, 2026The requirements attached to infrastructure projects have multiplied. A road project is also a noise abatement project, a biodiversity offset project, and a social procurement project. A water treatment upgrade… -
The infrastructure pipeline is growing. The approval pipeline is not.
August 28, 2026There is more infrastructure in planning across Australia right now than at any point in the past twenty years. Defence, energy, resources, water, transport, and digital infrastructure are all in… -
Australia’s renewable energy buildout is creating an infrastructure coordination challenge
August 24, 2026The renewable energy construction programme running across Australia is unlike anything the sector has delivered before. Wind, solar, battery storage, and the transmission infrastructure connecting them are all being built… -
Major projects are becoming interface management projects
August 21, 2026The complexity of major infrastructure projects has shifted. The technical problems are not getting harder. The interface problems are. More contractors, more packages, more design consultants, and more independent scopes… -
The water sector has entered its biggest investment cycle in decades
August 17, 2026Australia’s water sector is in the middle of a capital investment period that has no recent precedent. Ageing infrastructure, population growth, drought resilience requirements, and the transition to decarbonised treatment… -
Australia’s resources sector is building the next generation of processing infrastructure
August 14, 2026The resources sector is in a construction phase that goes beyond anything seen in the last decade. It is not simply a capacity expansion. The nature of what is being… -
The next infrastructure bottleneck may not be power
August 7, 2026The power conversation has dominated infrastructure planning for two years. Grid capacity, connection timelines, and energy procurement have become real programme constraints across the sector. Most of the attention in… -
Australia wants more data centres. The grid wants something else.
August 3, 2026Australia is commissioning data centres at a pace the grid was not designed to handle. The demand side is clear. Hyperscale operators, sovereign cloud programs, AI infrastructure investment, and federal…