The Hearing Conservation Workshop

The “Hear Tomorrow” workshop offers a new approach to promoting awareness of the ever-increasing problem of noise and music-induced hearing loss. This program is specifically targeted to students in audio engineering programs, from audio recording to architectural and environmental acoustics, including sound reinforcement, post-production for film and video, game design, multi-media, and installed sound systems.  Because many of the principles and theories in “Hear Tomorrow” are the same as those governing audio systems and acoustics, audio students have proved particularly adept at understanding this information.  In addition, students of audio and acoustics are quick to understand the importance of developing their own safe listening habits, and equally quick at developing a sensitivity to the health and safety of their clients and the general public.

The workshop is a three-hour presentation, including images and animations reflecting the latest in hearing research. It is divided into three distinct but interrelated units.  The first unit focuses on hearing physiology, providing a basic understanding of how the ear translates acoustic energy (via hair cell transduction) into what we perceive as sound.  This leads to the second unit, hearing loss, which examines the mechanics of noise-induced loss. Finally, the unit on hearing conservation examines currently accepted noise exposure limits and, ultimately, what can be done to protect hearing. We look at everything from the latest developments in “high-fidelity ear plugs” to concert in-ear monitoring systems, both of which are finding a high degree of acceptance in the professional audio and music performance industries.

At this time, the workshop is “in development.”  It represents the best attempt at compressing a semester’s worth of information into a three-hour seminar. Attendees of the first few workshops will be asked to provide feedback to improve future presentations. Additional ideas under consideration as “add-ons” to the workshop include bringing in a local audiologist to run hearing tests and take impressions for custom earplugs; supplying promotional give-away items (musicians’ earplugs, flash drives with relevant software, a simple, inexpensive SPL “exposure meter”); and presentation on assistance programs from MusicCares, the four-star charitable foundation affiliated with The Recording Academy®.