Smith, Fause & McDonald, Inc.

Our Noise and Vibration Group specializes in analysis and mitigation design of both simple sources and the unusual and complex impact levels generated by industrial plants, commercial activities, transportation systems and mechanical systems. Our goal is to economically reduce the noise and vibration impact on the surrounding areas and to allow such activities to comply with municipal codes. Specific scope of services offered by this group is outlined in the section below.

SCOPE OF SERVICES OFFERED IN ENVIRONMENTAL ACOUSTICS, 

NOISE AND & VIBRATION CONTROL & MITIGATION

Projects types for which we typically provide these services include:

• Hospitals and Medical Office Buildings
• Shell and Tenant Improvement Office Environments, Car Washes and Emergency Generators
• Residential, including Apartments, Condominiums, Single Family Subdivisions and Hotel/Motels
• Industrial Facilities
• Utilities

QUALIFICATIONS

Smith, Fause & McDonald, Inc. is an exceptional acoustical engineering firm and is considered to be one of the finest environmental acoustical engineering firms in the country.  We have an outstanding reputation for developing appropriate and cost effective compliance measures, delivering projects on time and on budget, offering fresh insights to difficult problems, paying great attention to detail and providing excellent follow up. This is a direct result of the leading roles taken by the firm's highly qualified Principals and Associates in completing each environmental acoustics project. They are supported by experienced and talented engineers and production staff capable of responding to the demands of complex projects within tight scheduling constraints. 

Principals formulate the measurement methodologies, conduct the actual noise and vibration measurements in complex studies, develop and engineer the mitigation measures, prepare reports and make public presentations. Associates and engineers set up and conduct the measurements, collect and analyze the data, and assist the Principals in producing graphs, sketches and supporting data for the reports.  Peter McDonald holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from UCLA's Acoustical Engineering program and is Board Certified by the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE), a recognition which is limited to those who pass a PE type written exam and peer review process specific to noise control engineers. Peter McDonald has furthermore been certified as an Acoustical Consultant by the County of Orange. This county's certification program is the only mechanism in the United States whereby acoustical engineers are formally registered to practice.  Certification is limited to those who are either professional engineers or who pass the INCE exam, and who can demonstrate an effective understanding of County's requirements through prior project experience.

EXPERIENCE OVERVIEW

Smith, Fause & McDonald, Inc. has assessed and designed mitigation for many complex, multifaceted noise sources.

A notable project is SFMI's provision of comprehensive noise and vibration measurements, analysis and mitigation measures which allowed the development of 1,700 home residential subdivision bounded by two existing 24 hour-a-day sand and gravel mines and an existing highly impacted freeway.  The mines employed both blasting and earth moving machines in their extraction process.  SFMI performed 2,500 hours of continued calibrated measurements and developed analysis in accordance with conditions of four different community noise standards.  Through use of 3-D acoustical propagation calculations and analyzed data, we were able to develop innovative and economical mitigation measures that not only allowed the developer to obtain approval for site development from the Riverside County Planning Commission, but also to recover a proposed 1,000 foot minimum buffer strip of land around the development. This alone allowed the developer to be able to construct hundreds of additional houses. SFMI's findings formed the noise chapter of the Project EIR filed under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) standards.

SFMI has also monitored large scale outdoor music and entertainment noise impacts on vast areas of residential land, including the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California; California Exposition in Sacramento, California; Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California; a proposed music dome facility at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Los Angeles, California; and the sound of a scheduled entertainment spectacular for a major theme park in Anaheim California (identity confidential). In four of these projects, SFMI responded with an in-house developed technique of performing synchronized digital recordings of both source and impacted ambient sound levels coupled with post-processing of data in our offices. Measured over several nights, this technique permitted SFMI to establish the role of inversion layer acoustical effects on the level of sound being received in the community areas.

SFMI has also performed long baseline measurements of the impact of high speed race cars and drag strip operations at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma County. Our initial work was performed jointly for both the tracks and their neighbors and focused on identifying solutions without reference to maximum levels. A subsequent study was conducted for the neighbors focused on the conformance of track operations with prevailing county noise standards.  Finding the track to be more than 20 dB in excess of the standards through SFMI's work, the County then directed the track to perform a formal EIR as part of a recent renovation Project.  SFMI's assessment and measurements formed a significant element of the body of data contained in the Project EIR.

TEST EQUIPMENT RESOURCES

To conduct field noise and vibration measurements, we maintain extensive laboratory grade field test equipment that is calibrated on an annual basis by outside calibration laboratories.  SFMI's field equipment includes Hewlett-Packard 3569A portable dual channel dynamic signal analyzer with dual channel A-weighted, octave, one-third octave analysis, dual channel 1600 line FFT, cross-correlation and reverb time capabilities; a JBL Smaart DSP based Sound Analyzer; a TEF 20 Time Delay Spectrometry Analyzer with direct Speech Transmission Index, an ISO Tapping machine from Norwegian Electronics,  4 and 8 hour Digital Audio Tape recorders, VHS Hi Fi recorders, SMPTE Time code generators for calibrated stereo impact documentation and post processing, and the appropriate accessories including weather stations, portable computers, precision microphones and accelerometers from ACO Pacific, Bruel & Kjaer, Larson Davis and Gen Rad.

To enhance the functionality of the instruments, we have developed custom instrumentation control software, weather shielded boxes, high performance shock and wind protection and portable power systems.

The firm also has standing accounts with major test equipment rental companies across the country to address unique Client requirements.