Page 11 - Volume 8, Issue 1 Winter 2013

THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA STANDARDS PROGRAM: ORGANIZATION AND SCOPE
Paul D. Schomer
Schomer and Associates Inc. 2117 Robert Drive Champaign, Illinois 61821
“Standards are one of the foremost ways that the society accomplishes its purpose of promoting the practical application of acoustics.”
Introduction
The standards program of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is fundamental to the Society and directly serves its stated purpose—to increase and diffuse the knowledge of acoustics and promote its practical applications. Standards are
one of the foremost ways that the soci-
ety accomplishes its purpose of pro- moting the practical application of acoustics.
Since the inception of the society in 1929, members have been actively involved in the development of acoustical stan- dards. The very first standards work began in 1930 and dealt with standardizing a sound level meter and its use. For those of you who know him, Bob Young was there and making his ideas known. So the society has an 82-year history of acousti- cal standards development.
Naturally, over these 82 years, the standards program has taken on various different shapes and forms. At an age of 82, it predates the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). This paper describes the current program, its makeup, and operation.
Standards program organization
There are four constituent parts to the standards pro- gram organization. The governance of the standards pro- gram is by the Acoustical Society of America’s Committee on Standards (ASACOS), and there are 3 operating ele- ments under ASACOS. First, there are the committees that develop the American National Standards. These commit- tees are accredited by ANSI, and are termed accredited standards committees (ASCs). National Standards devel- oped by these committees are given the designation ANSI/ASA and are copyrighted by the ASA. Second, there are the ISO/IEC Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs). These TAGs provide the United States’ input to the development of ISO and IEC standards. Third, there are ISO secretariats. These secretariats provide the management and operation of ISO committees or subcommittees.
There are four ASCs and one subcommittee that develop American National Standards under the umbrella of ANSI. These are the so-called “S” committees. There is S1, Acoustics; S2, Mechanical Vibration and Shock; S3, Bioacoustics; S12, Noise; and the relatively recent addition of S3/Subcommittee 1, Animal Bioacoustics.
The “S” committees
S1, Acoustics, develops standards with such topics as acoustical terminol- ogy, sound level meters, filters, noise dosimeters, etc. The scope of ASC S1 is:
Standards, specifications, methods of measurement and test, and ter- minology in the field of physical acoustics including architectural acoustics, electroacoustics, sonics
and ultrasonics, and underwater sound, but excluding those aspects which pertain to biological safety, toler- ances and comfort.
S2, Mechanical Vibration and Shock, develops standards with such topics as calibration of shock and vibration trans- ducers, vibration of buildings, and human vibration thresh- olds, etc. The scope of ASC S2 is:
Standards, specifications, methods of measurement and test, and terminology in the field of mechanical vibration and shock, and condition monitoring and diagnostics of machines, including the effects of exposure to mechanical vibration and shock on humans, including those aspects which pertain to biological safety, tolerance and comfort.
S3, Bioacoustics, develops standards with such topics as speech interference levels, articulation index, and specifica- tion of hearing aids, etc. The scope of ASC S3 is:
Standards, specifications, methods of measurement and test, and terminology in the fields of psychological and physiological acoustics, including aspects of general acoustics, which pertain to biological safety, tolerance and comfort.
A few years ago, Subcommittee 1, Animal Bioacoustics, was added under ASC S3. ASC S3/SC 1 is planning to devel- op standards with such topics as measuring ambient noise in low-noise situations such as parks and wilderness areas, underwater passive acoustic monitoring for bioacoustic applications, noise and vibration in animal laboratory facili- ties, etc. The scope of S3/SC 1 is:
Standards, specifications, methods of measurement and test, instrumentation and terminology in the field of psy- chological and physiological acoustics, including aspects of general acoustics, which pertain to biological safety, tolerance and comfort of non-human animals, including both risk to individual animals and to the long-term via-
10 Acoustics Today, January 2012