Technology: Keep it

Keep it down: Knoxville tests noise-monitoring camera

By JULIE YOUNG | The Municipal

To catch noise ordinance violators, Knoxville is testing the 24 Acoustics “smart” camera, which has a sound level meter with a couple of high-resolution cameras attached to it. (Shutterstock.com)

In the novel “1984,” George Orwell introduced the concept of a “Big Brother” watching everything you do. However, in Knoxville, Tenn., he’s more likely to hear you: if, that is, your car is disturbing the peace.

To address complaints leveled by those who have grown frustrated by noisy motorists with modified mufflers and drivers who rev their engines at all hours, the city has installed a mobile camera that captures data associated with distinct noise ordinance violations.

“Right now, the city is limited to anecdotal complaints and what patrol officers witness,” Carter Hall, Knoxville policy and business innovation manager, said in a press release. “This camera, on loan from 24 Acoustics Ltd., is a promising new tool that can help cities address noise as a quality-of-life issue. We want to conduct a short-term demonstration project to track the frequency and source of the worst noise issues.”

Demanding action

The impetus for the new initiative came in October 2020 when the leaders of several homeowner’s associations in the downtown Knoxville area reached out to Mayor Indya Kincannon and asked her to do something about vehicles with illegally modified exhaust systems and loud sound systems that make dinner conversation, Zoom meetings and sleep difficult.

“Excessive noise is more than an inconvenience. It keeps residents awake and disrupts workers, and chronic noise pollution creates a risk of negative health effects, both physical and mental,” Deputy to the Mayor Erin Gill, the city’s chief policy officer, said in a press release.

While there’s a $50 fine for each infraction, catching violators in the act is easier said than done, which is why the 24 Acoustics smart camera is worth a test run. According to Dave Coles, director at Intelligent Instruments Ltd., and a senior consultant at 24 Acoustics, the noise system he helped to develop is a patented, Class 1-accuracy Intelligent Noise Monitor that includes a sound level meter with a couple of high-resolution cameras attached to it.

“The noise camera system works by detecting noisy vehicles and capturing video, audio and precision noise levels of the event to enable someone to review it and determine whether the noise is excessive,” he said.

Collect and delete

The 24 Acoustics unit, which ordinarily costs $25,000, was tried successfully in Kensington, United Kingdom, in November 2020 then adopted by the UK police force before making its way across the pond to New York City. Philadelphia has also introduced a proposal to bring similar technology to the community.

Coles said it’s important for people to understand that although the system is constantly monitoring the noise on the street, it also deletes data that is more than a few seconds old. It only saves content that meets a certain decibel threshold. It’s not able to pick up a conversation, no matter how loud that conversation may be.

“A voice wouldn’t really be loud enough (to trigger a saved recording) … because it’s not generating the frequencies that we’d be looking for,” he told local media.

City ordinance mandates that vehicles have a muffler in good working order, and it bans muffler cutouts or bypasses. On streets with a speed limit of 35 mph or lower, the maximum noise allowed for most vehicles is 82 dBA. The dBA scale factors in sensitivity of the human ear to various sound frequencies.

Examples of noises at the 80 dBA level that sometimes are cited by noise experts include a garbage disposal or a food blender, or, according to OSHA, standing 100 feet away from a moving freight train.

A 100 dBA measurement denotes a noise level comparable, according to OSHA, with being on a construction site. Other sources say a 100 dBA measurement denotes noise comparable to a jackhammer.

“Although the demonstration project will focus on downtown, testing this tool as a strategy for enforcement will benefit other neighborhoods as well,” Gill said.

Once the noise camera demonstration project ends, the city will evaluate the camera’s performance and the data generated before deciding whether such a too could be beneficial to effective enforcement of its noise-restriction ordinance going forward.

The 24 Acoustics camera records two-directional video, which captures the license plate number of unusually loud vehicles. However, the noise-monitoring camera is different than red-light traffic enforcement cameras that are currently in use at 19 Knoxville intersections.

Residents applaud the initiative and hope that the installation, along with the accompanying signage makes a difference to those living near the intersection of Gay Street and Clinch Avenue.

On a television news show last year, Gerald Witt, a homeowners association president in the area, said: “I think it’s important for folks to understand that folks live and work down here and that if you’re being disruptive, it’s no different than someone coming to your workplace or your home and doing the same thing right outside your door.” The downtown Knoxville, Tenn., community asked Mayor Indya Kincannon to do something about vehicles with illegally modified exhaust systems and loud sound systems that make dinner conversation, Zoom meetings and sleep difficult or next-to-impossible. (Shutterstock.com)

Noise pollution can be a problem in any city, leading some to experiment with ways to reduce noise ordinance violation. (Shutterstock.com)

Sources:

www.wate.com/news/local-news/ noise-camera-company-explains-tech-ahead-of-knoxville-test/ www.wbir.com/article/life/city-of-knoxville-considering-new-technology-to-help-enforce-city-noise-ordinance-noise-cameras-downtown/51-0eecbe4f-e06d-4376-a2b503049b9559d8 www.knoxvilletn.gov/news/2022noise-_monitoring_camera_being_tested_downtown