We are preparing our new laboratory, and this is an excellent opportunity to share some of my thoughts. Looking at all the trouble, the work, and the study I have to do, it is weird to hear some people call their new space a laboratory nowadays. According to Wikipedia, the definition of a lab is the following:
a room or building equipped for scientific experiments, research, or teaching, or for the manufacture of drugs or chemicals.
I will stay in a room or building equipped for scientific experiments and research. So to call your new space a lab, you must have the proper equipment and the appropriate personnel to conduct scientific experiments and research. In our area, which is the evaluation of IT products, we can say that we conduct scientific experiments for each review, as long as we follow specific procedures and methodologies, which allow for accurate results. But it is so much more than that. You not only have to collect all data, but you also have to properly maintain everything in the lab, besides knowing how to use it properly. But, there is always a but, damn it. Before all mentioned above, you have first to set up the lab, and in my case, I have to do it with the help of my wife. Thankfully, we have already set up one lab and have the required experience. Still, many work hours are needed to think, plan, and guide the workers on what to do.
One of the most painful things in the new lab is to order all the necessary parts for the hemi-anechoic chamber and, the toughest of all, to build it! I am not a construction worker, but I know how to pick the right ones and guide them through creating a chamber for noise measurements. The best would be to dig a hole as deep as it gets and make the room there, but this was not possible in my case for various reasons. In the next lab that I will build in my own space, I will try to do that, but till that day comes, I have to work with what I have. So in the new area, we will build a box inside another box, as I call it, to make it crystal clear to the construction workers what we are dealing with.
We have two brick walls and 10-15cm of proper noise insulation material between them to block as much as possible from the external noise. Moreover, the entire room is built on top of a unique material, which can withstand extreme weight, so it doesn't come in contact with the floor. This way, noise cannot be transferred through vibrations. The last pieces are the ceiling, which also uses unique material, and the super-heavy door, which weighs more than 300 kilos!
We might share more details about the new lab if we find the time. In our case, we have to take super-active roles in the whole process, and it is not easy to work and do it properly while holding a camera or a phone.
