Everyone loves the sounds of side show alley at the fair, with rides and games accompanied by music and excitement; that is everyone at the fair.

For those working or living nearby, the attraction pales as each day passes. By the time you've heard the roller coaster a hundred times and can hum every tune of every ride, the noise has become a constant intrusion and destroys relaxation and turns telephone conversations into wild guessing games. Lost rest and missed phone calls can be costly to both health and lost business, but the effects of these types of events can be assessed prior to the first stake being driven into the ground.

Camets was commissioned by a commercial client to assess the effects on his business of noise from the side show rides installed across the road from his premises.

Preliminary estimates based on a general background noise levels of 87 dB(A) throughout the fairground (and later confirmed by site measurements) indicated that background noise levels within his offices would reach over 53 dB(A). Australian Standard AS2107 indicates that in a general office area 45 dB(A) is the maximum that should be tolerable. Additional measurements indicated that the ten percentile noise levels in side show alley reached 91 dB(A) and the levels in the offices would exceed 65 dB(A). With these sort of noise levels telephone usage becomes extremely difficult and the business suffers.

In response to the assessments, "temporary" 3 metre high noise barriers suddenly appeared just before the fair opened, along both the boundary of side show alley and close around the offices of the business next door. The potential noise exposures were revised to take into account these last minute "temporary" noise controls. The predicted intruding background noise level in the office dropped to less than 25 dB(A) and the 10-percentile noise levels dropped to 37 dB(A). Compliance was confirmed using, automated noise and weather monitoring installed and operated for the duration of the fair. These monitors were used to check on the intruding noise and on the effectiveness of the noise control measures.

Due to accurate prediction and measurement, the noise controls were installed before the business was exposed to interfering noise levels. So successful was the "temporary" noise barriers that they re-appeared the following year to once more encase the offices of the business next door in their protective acoustic shell.

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