At Blue Moth Creative we love anything to do with sound attenuation and acoustically treating rooms. Rehearsal spaces, podcast recording, baffling event spaces – we love it. Check out how serious they get at the federal government level in this article from CBC News.
Plugging leaks: experts soundproof new offices for Trudeau, MPs
New home for House of Commons full of baffles, mufflers and other devices to thwart eavesdropping.
Dean Beeby
CBC News
January 31st, 2018
Federal officials have spent millions plugging leaks in Ottawa’s renovated West Block, a heritage building that will become a temporary home for the House of Commons later this year.
But no plumbers were hired for the job. Instead, acoustical experts were called in to prevent eavesdropping in the halls by pesky journalists and others eager for hot information leaks.
Technicians redirected air ducts, installed false walls, inserted mufflers into vents and redesigned MPs’ office suites — all to help end the long legacy of snooping on Parliament Hill.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find leaks — they’re 99.9 per cent taken care of,” says Claude Fortier, a sound expert whose firm, State of the Art Acoustiks Inc., was hired to sound-proof rooms in the venerable stone structure, first erected in 1865.
“To get good speech privacy is really a major commitment. It doesn’t happen by accident.”
The current home of the House of Commons and the Senate chamber, known as the Centre Block with its Peace Tower, is slated for a 10-year overhaul beginning this fall, forcing the move to West Block. (The Senate chamber is moving to another heritage building nearby.)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office suite, a cabinet room, the Opposition leader’s office suite, the Speaker’s accommodations, committee rooms and MPs offices have all been newly built inside the West Block. Barring final construction delays, they’re slated to welcome their new tenants this fall.
