Recreational Noise

Recreational noise is generally produced by recreational sources such as lawnmowers, discos, circuses and fairs, private music and open-air concerts and is experienced both indoors and outdoors. In many cases, the noise is unpredictable both in level and in when it occurs. Here, assessment is often done by making survey measurements. However, with planned events such as concerts or sporting events, monitoring of levels at the source and at noise-sensitive locations is often useful. And with permanent fairgrounds or tourist attractions, more or less permanent noise monitoring may be required.

The annoyance from recreational sources is often due to an increase in ambient noise level, but can also be due to information content such as pure tones or impulsive noise, or due to the penetration of deep, bass tones from modern music systems.

For making surveys of annoying recreational noises, advanced handheld instruments are ideal.