It’s no secret that operators of heavy vehicles and machinery face unique challenges.

These may include:

• Working in extreme weather conditions
• Exposure to fumes and chemicals
• Loud environmental noise

A panel at the Heavy Vehicle Safety Summit that took place in April of this year noted that a combination of training and technology is key to addressing the human aspect of these challenges. In a recent blog post, we talk about how to get your workers to adhere to your safety guidelines. But what about technology?

According to OSHA, for more than 25 years, hazardous noise-related hearing loss has been one of the highest-rated concerns in the US. About 26 million Americans between the ages of 20 and 69 have high-frequency hearing loss due to exposure to loud noises at work or in leisure activities. Add to that the fact that NIOSH (The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) and The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) state that:

People in every business field understand that there is underlying importance for communication; however, some industries and business fields neglect to place the correct degree of emphasis on the issue of effective communication. Some may fail to see that effective communication within their industries is not only important but also essential to success and productivity. Nowhere is this piece of information more relevant than within the ring of offshore industries working primarily in areas of oil and gas production and processing - effective communication is a critical component therein and is often overlooked by industry leaders. Those who own or manage offshore industry businesses may want to consider the information below concerning the importance of effective communication and how said communication can be achieved.

Hearing protection has long been discussed among business leaders in the industrial workforce environment. If you were to pull any industrial employee off of the street today for questioning, they would probably be able to immediately recognize the term “occupational noise exposure.” Occupational noise exposure is a fancy expression that refers to a simple concept: being around a dangerously loud piece of equipment in the workplace. Hear-Through technology was developed in an effort to combat a specific set of downfalls with traditional hearing protection equipment by providing users with a unique solution. Read the information below to learn more about why traditional forms of hearing protection are not ideal and why hear-through technology provides an essential solution.

Today’s society is comprised of a generation obsessed with productivity. Taking one look at any given city street can quickly reveal to anyone that 21st-century individuals are always “doing something.” For instance, an individual can walk from his or her favorite restaurant back to work while simultaneously sending emails right in the palm of his or her hand. This is a generation of multi-tasking and “getting things done,” so it is easy to understand why the emphasis in the workforce is placed on effectiveness, productivity, and efficiency. One of the primary goals of any level-headed employer can be summed up in a simple question: how can this workload be completed with greater efficiency and increased automation? As most people in the business world know, the answer is equally simple. Communication is the key to workplace productivity and efficiency - especially within industrial environments. Those who are interested in learning more about the importance of communication within the scope of industrial environments may benefit from reading the information below.

Those who are not often involved in the world of hearing protection may be unfamiliar with the term “digital signal processing.” Also known as DSP, digital signal processing is used by only elite headset companies to create a safe experience in unnaturally loud work environments. Those who are considering purchasing a headset may want to consider the importance of digital signal processing and how it impacts the effectiveness of overall performance in headset equipment.

In today’s fast-paced society, the average worker’s everyday environment is becoming louder and louder. As more advanced forms of technology are incorporated into the tools used by employees on the job, noise has become a serious concern to health officials. Hand sorting a conveyor belt of food products is a thing of the past; in the present day, loud machinery creates quite a racket in plants around the world as tasks are accomplished at a speed many times that of the human hand.

frack·ing  noun \ˈfra-kiŋ\: the injection of fluid into shale beds at high pressure in order to free up petroleum resources (such as oil or natural gas)

Improved technology has increased the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, over the past decade. The American Petroleum Institute has called the extraction of natural gas from shale "the most important domestic energy development in the last fifty years,” and fracking is one of over 150 new words and definitions added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary in 2014.

Analog systems became popular among the general public around the 1930s and were particularly utilized within two-way radio communication systems. The analog two-way radio quickly became the communication system of choice among those in the business arena. However, as seasoned veterans in the field of on-the-job communication technology know, the analog method has hit the proverbial ceiling, leaving no room for further innovation and advancement in communication technology.

Most of us have used Bluetooth-connected devices in relatively quiet environments: an office, a car, and/or at home. But what good is Bluetooth^® in an extremely noisy location? Can it even be an option?

What is Bluetooth^® anyway?
According to Wikipedia, Bluetooth^® is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short-wavelength UHF radio waves in the ISM band from 2.4 to 2.485 GHz^[2]) from fixed and mobile devices and building personal area networks (PANs). Invented by telecom vendor Ericsson in 1994,^[3] it was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables. It can connect several devices, overcoming problems of synchronization.