This post is by Steve Tait, Senior Telecoms Engineer at TRaC.Do you design equipment for an office environment or call centre? If you do, have you ever considered the impact of the Noise at Work Directive on your designs?
The Noise at Work Directive details the sound levels that a user should be subjected to during an 8 hour working day.
Although the directive and standards have been around for a number of years there has recently been a raised awareness that equipment should be assessed to ensure satisfactory working conditions for employees.
Working conditions in an office environment can significantly affect an
employee's experience when working in a call centre (for example),
especially if the form of communication is with a headset rather than a
handset
As the background noise increases, the caller will immediately raise their voice to try to compensate for the noise, resulting in a further increase in background noise!! The user may also increase the volume setting of the headset to try to reduce the effects of the external noise source.
With either of these situations, this may cause the user to be subjected to levels of sound in the ear that are uncomfortable.
Testing of IT equipment (headset) is performed to ascertain if products meet the specific requirements as detailed in the Noise at Work Directive. Levels greater than 85dB(A) are considered dangerous to the user.
Background noise can also affect the employee's perception during a working day. In a lab environment this can be simulated by performing specific measurements.
The other contributing factor to background noise is the emissions from IT/Office equipment. There are various standards that define the acceptable limits within various working conditions.
Manufacturers of IT equipment and headsets should be aware of both the Noise at Work Directive and also the specific standards that focus on noise emission from equipment. The typical standard that details the Noise emission is ETSI EN 300 753 v1.2.1 which defines the allowable emissions for various operating environments.
To summarise, it is the employer's responsibility to meet the Noise at Work Directive and not necessarily the manufacturer's responsibility. However, with high levels of competition within the headset market, manufacturers are beginning to see compliance with these standards and Directive as a marketing tool.
Watch this space for more information on the specific tests involved!
Previous Certification & Test entries:
* Certification & Test: How am I going to test that?
* Certification & Test: Electrical safety is still important!
* Certification & Test: Why bother with vibration testing?
* Certification & Test: Do I really need earthquake testing?
* Certification & Test: Differences between earthquake and vibration testing?
* Certification & Test: Safety - it's a complex business!
* Certification & Test: What's the point of a Notified Body?
* Certification & Test: The difference between Bluetooth and ZigBee testing?
* Certification & Test: Is above 1GHz the new Wild West?
* Certification & Test: Where have all the ZigBee products come from?
As the background noise increases, the caller will immediately raise their voice to try to compensate for the noise, resulting in a further increase in background noise!! The user may also increase the volume setting of the headset to try to reduce the effects of the external noise source.
With either of these situations, this may cause the user to be subjected to levels of sound in the ear that are uncomfortable.
Testing of IT equipment (headset) is performed to ascertain if products meet the specific requirements as detailed in the Noise at Work Directive. Levels greater than 85dB(A) are considered dangerous to the user.
Background noise can also affect the employee's perception during a working day. In a lab environment this can be simulated by performing specific measurements.
The other contributing factor to background noise is the emissions from IT/Office equipment. There are various standards that define the acceptable limits within various working conditions.
Manufacturers of IT equipment and headsets should be aware of both the Noise at Work Directive and also the specific standards that focus on noise emission from equipment. The typical standard that details the Noise emission is ETSI EN 300 753 v1.2.1 which defines the allowable emissions for various operating environments.
To summarise, it is the employer's responsibility to meet the Noise at Work Directive and not necessarily the manufacturer's responsibility. However, with high levels of competition within the headset market, manufacturers are beginning to see compliance with these standards and Directive as a marketing tool.
Watch this space for more information on the specific tests involved!
Previous Certification & Test entries:
* Certification & Test: How am I going to test that?
* Certification & Test: Electrical safety is still important!
* Certification & Test: Why bother with vibration testing?
* Certification & Test: Do I really need earthquake testing?
* Certification & Test: Differences between earthquake and vibration testing?
* Certification & Test: Safety - it's a complex business!
* Certification & Test: What's the point of a Notified Body?
* Certification & Test: The difference between Bluetooth and ZigBee testing?
* Certification & Test: Is above 1GHz the new Wild West?
* Certification & Test: Where have all the ZigBee products come from?
After obtaining his Bachelor's degree in engineering, Jonathan worked for a number of engineering companies prior to obtaining a teaching role at the University of Hull (England). In 1995 he joined KTL, an internationally renowned test laboratory which then became TRaC, as part of the Digital Group specialising in regulatory requirements for digital telecommunications equipment. During his time at the company he has, among other things, been appointed as Senior Protocol Engineer, and Approvals and Homologation Group Manager. Jonathan has actively participated in various technical working groups for the ZigBee Allianceâ and is currently the ZigBee Qualification Group (ZQG) Lead Technical Editor. 
Steve is Managing Director for the EMC and Safety business of TRaC and has been involved in EMC and product approvals for 19 years. In addition to the day to day running of the business, Steve is actively involved in EMC standardisation both in commercial and defence areas. In addition to being the UK Principal expert on EMC standardisation of Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) products he is also the convenor of CISPR/B/WG1 who has the responsibility of writing the International standard, CISPR 11. Steve wrote the CE marking annex to the UK's defence EMC standard as well as being co-convenor of CENELEC TC210/WG9, responsible for writing a guide on approval of military systems with commercial (CE Marking) requirements.
Joe Lomako MSc is the Business Development Manager of Telecoms and Radio at TRaC. He has been involved in the testing and compliance industry for over 15 years. Prior to joining TRaC Joe specialised in EMC, EMF Exposure and Radio compliance.
Appointed Test Manager in 2007, following three years as Projects Manager at TRaC, having previously worked as Head of Environmental Testing at another UKAS accredited test house. Over 20 years' experience of modelling, testing and measurement in the structural dynamics and seismic fields.
Chris has worked in electrical safety compliance for over 17 years. Having previously worked for BSI, he joined TRaC in 1996, progressing through a number of testing roles before becoming Safety Product Manager in 2006.
Appointed Commercial Manager - Analysis in November 2009. Prior to joining TRaC, he was the Business Development Manager at Onward Technologies, an engineering services company based in India. Graham has spent over 20 years working in the CAD / CAE domain selling both engineering services and engineering systems. 
Stephen Tait joined KTL, an internationally renowned test laboratory which then became TRaC, as part of the Telecom Group specialising in telecommunications product testing for worldwide approvals. Stephen is also responsible for the Telecoms commercial activities within the TRaC group.
Simon Barrowcliff is the Director of the ATEX Notified Body at TRaC. He set up TRaC's Lancashire-based, ATEX business in 2002 and has been heavily involved in EX testing and compliance since then. Simon also runs TRaC's certification schemes for electrical safety under the IECEE CB scheme. He is a chartered electrical engineer with more than 20 years experience of product compliance for electrical and mechanical equipment.
Appointed Managing Director in November 2007. Previously he was Test Facilities Manager for Flight Refuelling, part of the Cobham group, and spent his early career in the Environmental Engineering Department of British Aerospace at Stevenage.
Brendan was appointed Sales Director in August 2009. He joined the group in 2005 as Business Development Manager for environmental test services. Before joining TRaC he spent five years in Application Engineering and Technical Sales roles for automotive test equipment. He studied Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Trinity College Dublin.
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