Pickleball, a mix of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, is increasingly popular in the US: Generation Z likes it a lot, less so by those who live near the fields where it is played. The sport’s boom goes hand in hand with an explosion of protests for the noise it generates, as reported by The New York Times, which tests the sanity of anyone within earshot of a game. “It’s like having a shooting range in your backyard,” said John Mancini, whose home borders a pickleball field.
And his opinion is shared by many others, so Pickleball Sound Mitigation was born, a consultancy company specializing in measures to reduce the noise of this sport. It was founded by Bob Unetich, 77, a retired engineer and avid pickleball player. The actual noise level of sport is not just a matter of decibels: the annoyance is generated above all by the high-pitched tone of the impact between the ball and the racket and by the irregular, often frenetic rhythm of the shots. This is the mix that drives onlookers crazy.
The sounds of pickleball took center stage at Noise-Con 2023, the annual conference of North American noise control professionals, which featured the opening night session called Pickleball Noise. “This sport is the topic of the year,” said Jeanette Hesedahl, vice president of the conference. It is a national problem and the consultancy firm proposes a series of measures: acoustic barriers in fiberglass and fabric, but also adopting quieter rackets and balls which are not appreciated by the players.
2023-07-07 23:33:30
#Pickleball #rampage #noise #protests
