The impact of led luminaries on road lighting has modified traditional design patterns. The technological change proposes an installation with a higher prime cost and less energy consumption. On the one hand, the price ratio between led luminary and traditional luminary is at least 3:1. On the other, the led better energetic efficiency could allow keeping proper illumination levels with less installed power. In this frame, since mid 2013, the road concessionaires of highways which constitute the Access Network to Buenos Aires city (Argentina), together with Urban Highways of the mentioned city, began a restructuring process of their lighting systems to led technology.Framed in a review of efficiency concepts and energetic classification for road lighting installations, the work presents the main results of the previous evaluation tests and of the reconverted installations, which can be considered as the first led applications at large scale on road lighting of the region.

To elaborate noise maps, national and international directives indicate that urban noise measurements must be carried out 4 m high, so as to obtain the map by the method of direct measurements, or for the calibration of mathematical models that predict sound levels. As a continuation of research plans to be carried out in the Acoustic and Lighting Laboratory of the Commission of Scientific Research, Province of Buenos Aires (LAL—CIC), and in the Acoustic and Electroacoustic Laboratory, Engineering Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires (LACEAC—FI UBA), and in order to estimate the error that will be committed using the prediction method rather than the direct measuring method, urban noise measurements were taken in surrounding areas in a quick access to La Plata City, at different heights and different distances from the sound source.

The emergence of led luminaries in street lighting has modified traditional design guidelines. The highest led energy efficiency allows keeping suitable lighting levels with less installed power. Thus, the present design line of a street lighting installation is closely related to the technological change: kind of led to be used, suitable lens, efficacy relationship regarding high pressure sodium, light colour temperature, spectrum. The “impact” associated to with led conversion relegates main aspects of street designs: effect of road reflective properties and installation depreciation. The wear produced by traffic, as well as the environmental conditions gradually modifies the road reflection matrix. In a street lighting installation, this change alters the luminance arrangement on the road together with the perception conditions. This phenomenon is a determining factor within the global concept of depreciation affecting lighting systems in general and also street lighting installations designed by the Luminance Technique. In the present work changes, due to use, in the shape of street reflection matrices of Argentinean highways are analyzed. The analyzed r-tables were obtained through “in-situ” measurements, with road reflectometer. A first group corresponds to the initial conditions of macro textured roads which were measured in the period 2001/2003. The second studied set contains r-tables of the same type, and according to its use the surfaces can be considered in steady state, assessed between 2005 and 2009. The study provides information about the shape of matrixes and its alteration, specularity and scale factor, relating such parameters with the possible effects on the resulting lighting.

This work is about the development of a system for the recording of holophonic sound and the obtaining of binaural acoustic parameters that characterize the spatial perception of sound. At the first part, the implementation of a prototype of a low cost acoustic mannequin, head and torso simulator (HATS), is presented, to which its anthropometric characteristics and frequency responses were analyzed. The second part describes the developed algorithms to process the data measured through the HATS. Finally, some results calculated with the developed system are shown, and compared with those obtained through a commercial software. The applications of the developed measurement system are several, among them can be mentioned: the recording of 3D sounds, the calculation of subjective parameters in room acoustics, or the measurement of noise doses to assess the hearing damage of people exposed to noise through headphones.

Here, we analyze the behavior of the acoustic parameters Leq, L1, L10, L50, L90, L99, Lmin, and Lmax of vehicular noise, which were measured in controlled laboratory conditions, for various traffic noise simulations. For that, sound recordings were created of equal duration but different composition, based on real recordings of the passage of different types of vehicles (cars, motorbikes, trucks, and buses) and using pink noise as background noise. This study is based on the necessity of finding the most appropriate parameters for the characterization of the traffic noise in the cities. The study began with the test of a measurement methodology that uses the equivalent continuous sound level, the main acoustical parameter applied in the city of La Plata, Argentina. However, Leq was shown insufficient and inadequate in certain situations, especially those that didn’t exhibit intense traffic noise, as found in certain residential areas. (To be presented in Spanish.)