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Putting our experience to work for you.

We invest in the technologies we recommend. Some of these are used as simulations to better explain environments before they are constructed.

Salter completed a LEED-Gold certified office expansion in the historic Hallidie Building. The new space is a flexible showplace and teaching environment demonstrating new acoustical, audiovisual, telecommunications, and security technologies within a sustainable office design. Our technology studio includes high-definition conferencing capabilities nested in a space that is designed for speech intelligibility and privacy. We deploy a sophisticated audio system, known as Meyer Sound Constellation, which allows architects and facilities groups to experience different reverberation times within our studio, helping them assess the level of acoustical needs for their spaces.

To better inform clients, Salter also has an in-house presentation studio to simulate acoustical environments. We have a subsidiary company, the Audio Forensic Center, providing audio, video, and multi-media forensic analysis and expert witness services.

In 1998, Salter authored ACOUSTICS: Architecture, Engineering, the Environment, a book for architects, engineers, facility owners and managers, specifiers, contractors, and other professionals with a need for information on acoustics. The 320-page reference book utilizes full color photographs, illustrations, and more than 50 case studies to help the reader understand how to approach acoustical design issues for all building types.

Courses

Salter offers free AIA CES registered courses for continuing professional education to building industry partners. Please contact us below to schedule a program led by experienced acoustical, audiovisual, telecommunications, and security consultants from our firm.

Course 100: Overview of Acoustical Design

We'll discuss room acoustics, sound isolation, mechanical equipment noise and vibration reduction, cost/benefits, and legal issues. Examine acoustical criteria in Building Codes, LEED documentation, ASHRAE handbook, and other industry standards for several building types. Learn from exciting case studies for projects of various scopes and budgets, including a world-renowned concert hall, a large mixed-use development, and a university laboratory building.

Course 200: Fundamentals of Acoustical Design

Learn about the fundamentals of acoustics in this multi-media presentation addressing room shape, sound-isolating assemblies, and mechanical equipment noise and vibration control.

Course 300: Environmental Acoustics

This multi-media presentation addresses environmental acoustics and its implications for public policies, mitigation approaches, general plan elements, noise ordinances, and land use criteria.

Course 400: Architectural Design - Acoustics and Audiovisual Systems

Join in an exploration of acoustics and audiovisual system design for spaces such as home theaters, classrooms, boardrooms, courtrooms, council chambers, and worship spaces.

Course 500: Office Acoustics Design Workshop

Learn how to design for speech privacy in open-plan and private offices. Using our open-plan demonstration facility, participants will experience how sound levels change with distance, shielding room partitions, and electronic sound masking systems.

Course 600: Telecommunications in Buildings - Programmatic Input to Architectural Layouts

Learn how to make buildings ready for data networks. This introductory course covers the building and space requirements to construct a communications network.

Course 700: Communication Systems in Architecture - Telecommunications Technology

Learn how IT systems are integrated in contemporary buildings. This advanced course highlights wired and wireless networking for voice and data, including fiber and copper cabling, and wireless LANS.

Course 800: Case Studies in Audiovisual System Design

Through case studies, discuss the elements of audiovisual design, including audio systems, teleconferencing and distance learning systems, sound masking, multimedia web content engineering, and network operations command and control centers. Learn about programming, design issues, cost analysis, and construction/post-construction
challenges.

Course 900: Architectural Challenges of Technology Infrastructure

Learn how to be more efficient designing technology systems, reducing planning costs, and providing added value to clients from an architectural standpoint to prepare your building for technology needs by way of infrastructure.

Course 1000: Acoustics and Energy Conservation in HVAC Systems

This course provides knowledge on how noise reduction and energy efficiency can work together in HVAC system design. The program will discuss some principles that reduce both energy consumption and noise.

Course 1100: Residential Acoustical Design

Multi-family housing includes buildings such as for-sale condominiums and townhouses, rental apartments, and hotels. We will discuss the importance of sound isolation in the design of multi-family housing. This includes issues such as building Code requirements, City and County regulations, project quality/marketability, room layout, sound isolation of demising partitions, environmental noise, plumbing noise, HVAC noise, elevator noise, and other noise sources.

Course 1200: Architectural Insights into Building Technology

The increasing cost and complexity of technology within buildings challenge the architect to deliver successful projects to their clients. After a technology program has been established, the architect faces the challenge of seeing that the technology is both aesthetically and functionally integrated with the building. Delivering technology that works in the hands of the end-user further challenges the architect. This program explores a process for delivering projects with technology systems that are within budget, enable the client's process, and work well.

Course 1300: Courtroom Technology Study

This presentation provides a summary of a 28-city study of federal courtroom technology. The study examines how courtroom technology increases the effectiveness and efficiencies of trials and other courtroom operations. The presentation also identifies best practices for design, procurement, installation, training, and maintenance of courtroom technology systems.

Course 1400: Planning for Security in the Built Environment

Learn how to integrate passive and active security into site planning. Identify which related systems must be coordinated with security during core and shell design. Learn why security projects fail and how to avoid costly construction and Code-related issues. Learn about the convergence of technology and impact on space planning.

Course 1500: Post-Pandemic Transformations in Higher Education

With exponentially increasing capabilities, computers and networks have played an ever-increasing role in how audiovisual technology is used in the learning space. However, while technology adoption has been steady and expected, the Pandemic has caused a sudden disruption for how we teach and learn on campus. With these new expectations, architects must reevaluate how learning spaces are planned. This course examines architectural considerations for these post-pandemic transformations.

Publications/White Papers

ACOUSTICS: Architecture, Engineering, the Environment

Salter

William Stout Publisher, 1998

Open Office Acoustics in Mass Timber Construction

Ethan Salter and Valerie Smith
INCE-USA Noise-Con Paper, 2020

Videoconferencing in A Post-Pandemic World: A Historical Perspective

Ken Graven

June 2020

Keeping Staff and Clients Safe after COVID-19 Shelter-in-Place

Rob Hammond and Ryan Raskop

June 2020

Moving from Open Offices Will Improve Acoustics

Greg Enenstein

California Buildings News Q2 2020, pg 13

Assembly Space Renovation Challenges: Town School for Boys Theater/Gymnasium

Jason Duty

178th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America Paper, 2019

Experiences with Gym Noise and Vibration in Mixed-Use Buildings

Diego Hernandez, Ethan Salter, and Felipe Tavera

INCE-USA Noise-Con Paper, 2019

What's New in Office Acoustics Design Standards

Charles Salter and Ethan Salter

California Buildings News Q2 2019, pg 5

Development of a Framework to Implement a Recycling Program in an Elementary School

Blake Wells

Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2014

Sound Pressures Generated by Exploding Eggs

Tony Nash and Lauren von Blohn

174th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America Paper, 2017

Forensic Sound Analyses of Cellular Telephone Recordings

Durand Begault, Adrian Lu, and Philip Perry

Audio Engineering Society 139th Convention Paper 9472, 2015

Intelligent Building Technology: The Evolution of the AV Consultant

Ken Graven

May 2015

Analysis Criteria for Forensic Musicology

Durand Begault, Heather Heise, and Christopher Peltier

The Journal of the Acoustical Society America, Volume 133, Issue 5: 3244, 2013

Supporting Dynamic Infrastructure Loads from a Vibrating Structure

Alex Salter

166th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America Paper, 2013

 

Achieving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design acoustical requirements in a commercial office project

Ethan Salter

The Journal of the Acoustical Society America, Volume 133, Issue 5: 3225, 2013

Acoustical Measurement Software Housed on Mobile Operating Systems Test

Felipe Tavera

Audio Engineering Society 135th Convention Paper, 2013

Uncertainty in the Measurement of the Electrical Network Frequency

Durand Begault, Anthony Nash, and Christopher Peltier

Audio Engineering Society 46th Convention Paper, 2012

Construction of an Artificial Ear Using the DADEC Model

Felipe Tavera

Revista Ingenium. Volume 13. No. 25, 2011

Sustainable Design and Acoustics

Ethan Salter

In Architectural Acoustics: Principals and Practice, ed. William J. Cavanaugh, Gregory C. Tocci, and Joseph A. Wilkes, 2nd ed. 273-294. John Wiley & Sons, 2010

Volume Control: Keeping the Sound Down in Urban, Mixed-Use Projects

Ethan Salter

Form Magazine November/December Issue: 44, 2010

Classroom Acoustics in the Developing World

Valerie Smith

INCE-USA Noise-Con Paper, 2010