SoundPrint Releases Groundbreaking Sound Level Data of Venues Worldwide

by SoundPrint Team

NEW YORK,  NEW YORK  December 3, 2021  SoundPrint, the singular crowdsourcing app enabling users to measure and submit venue noise levels completed its inaugural Find Your Quiet Place Challenge this October and established a critical benchmark based on sound level data captured worldwide.

SoundPrint’s study is the first of its kind to establish a universal sound level benchmark for venues including restaurants, bars, retailers, gyms and more. The data was collected from SoundPrint’s global user base of over 160,000 along with over 25 participating hearing health organizations including the American Tinnitus Association, Alexander Graham Bell, Hearing Health Foundation, and the campaign’s sponsor ReSound.

The key findings revealed that 66% of Restaurants and 76% of Nightlife venues are Too Loud for Conversation.  And that 35% of Restaurants and 51% of Nightlife venues Endanger the Hearing Health of employees and patrons.  The decibel average (dBA) for Restaurants is 78.1 dBA and 80.9 dBA for Nightlife, exceeding hearing health safety thresholds.  See data charts below.

Going forward, SoundPrint will track each year’s newly submitted data against the benchmark to determine if the world is getting quieter or louder.  Sound level data will be disseminated to the World Health Organization’s World Hearing Forum, noise pollution activists, acoustic suppliers, restaurant and gym trade associations, and venue managers to raise awareness of the public’s exposure to excessively high sound levels.  SoundPrint’s goals are to (1) lower the overall dBA level of restaurants and other venues and (2) reduce the percentage of venues that are Too Loud for Conversation and/or Endanger Hearing Health. 

About SoundPrint

The SoundPrint app enables users to “Find Your Quiet Place” and discover conversation-friendly venues that are safe for hearing health.  SoundPrint is driven by the mission to make the world a quieter place.  The app features a decibel meter to­­ measure and submit a venue’s noise level to SoundPrint’s publicly accessible database.  SoundPrint’s global database includes over 130K sound level submissions to help users find quieter venues and avoid the noisier ones.  Users can also recommend venues to SoundPrint’s Quiet Lists and submit noise complaints to put venue managers on notice. SoundPrint’s goal is to work with venues to mitigate or optimize their noise levels.  SoundPrint is also a member of the WHO’s World Hearing Forum.  

Founder Gregory Scott, a New Yorker with hearing loss, created the app after finding it increasingly challenging to find quieter venues for his dates.  “SoundPrint was developed to give patrons an easily accessible list of conversation-friendly venues,” said Scott.  “We promote the quieter establishments to help empower users with an informed choice as to where to go and feel confident that communicating won’t be difficult.” 

Contact

Sharon Bunkin
SoundPrint, Director of Marketing
sharon@soundprint.co
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