On Thursday afternoon the San Diego office of Acoustic Dimensions, took time out over lunch to drive up to Mt. Helix in search of the contrail that would be produced by a historic missile launch. The official spy satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, over 250 miles to the North of San Diego.  It is hailed as the largest rocket launched from the west coast and carried a classified defense satellite.  The 235-foot-tall Delta 1V Heavy Launch Vehicle lifted off at 1:10 pm. As the booster rose into the sky and raced over the Pacific Ocean toward outer-space, our San Diego team was able to witness the contrail from this beautiful viewpoint.

But being in the “sound business”, it is always a fascinating concept when one realizes that in most cases – there is simply no sound in outer-space.  There are sound sources (e.g. explosion of stars, collision of asteroids, solar storms and so on) but they do not travel to be detected as how we hear sound on earth. Space being a nearly perfect vacuum, means sound waves cannot travel from its vibrating source through the vacuum to another point in space or to the ear of an individual. In order to hear sound, it must travel through a medium (solid, liquid or gas) by making their molecules vibrate.  So do not be fooled the next time you see a space movie where you can hear the loud explosion of a planet, a spaceship engine or the firing of a gun. Sound just does not travel in space. It is silent!

During what should have been a “slow” week in the Dallas office, David Stephens, Russell Reid and Jason Foster implemented a few projects. 

They installed RGB LED wall glaze strip fixtures inside the “fizz wall” of one of our conference rooms.  The controls are programmed for a number of different looks.  (They lit them red and green for our Christmas party).

They installed an LED wall wash fixture to light the wall behind our new water feature. (Which was a housewarming gift from our New York office.)

And—probably their favorite project—they installed a pipe grid in the tech conference room, which will allow for testing of different fixtures and other equipment.  

We often laugh that we have way too many photos of our team hanging from ladders, but we are very glad that they do.  And are especially grateful that they use their skills not only for our clients but for our own space, too.