Bob is the founder PSM LLC.  He is a registered professional engineer and he has worked in consulting for over 40 years.  In 2014, he became an avid pickleball player and was asked to investigate ways that the sound of pickleball might be reduced in level at residences near his winter home in Florida. That work involved careful analysis of work done by acoustics engineers and at methods of reducing the level of annoyance experienced by neighbors of pickleball courts. This led to a study of how pickleball sounds are generated and propagated.

He has now been working in pickleball sound mitigation for over 8 years and he frequently offers advice and formal consulting services to communities, pickleball clubs and those living near pickleball courts and courts being converted to pickleball.

If you have a question about pickleball sound or about how to reduce the impact of this sound, call Bob at 412-780-4575 or email him at itsrmu@aol.com

Barry is the Principal Acoustical Engineer for PSM LLC. He is a registered Professional Engineer and has worked in the acoustical industry for over 40 years. His experience includes work in architectural acoustics, industrial noise abatement, automotive noise and vibration control, and in new product development. He previously worked for Owens Corning Fiberglas, General Electric Transportation Systems, Lear Corporation, and Janesville Acoustics. He has developed innovative acoustical products for the architectural and automotive markets and holds 4 US patents. His training includes a BS degree in physics, MS and PhD degrees in Engineering Acoustics, and an MBA degree. He has been a pickleball player for 4 years and is also a pickleball referee.

DALE H. VAN SCOYK is a 1969 graduate of Purdue University with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He has MBA training from Arizona State University.

He has over 25 years experience with industrial equipment design, testing and manufacturing. He has written white papers and delivered presentations for the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE) on electromagnetic noise measurement and suppression, as well as light wave spectrum analysis, perceived light pollution and LED light technology topics.

Dale is a year-round pickleball competitor in Wisconsin and Florida with gold medal awards. He is a USA Pickleball Certified Referee, an Ambassador and a PPR Certified Pickleball Instructor. He has worked with multiple municipalities in the Midwest on tennis court conversions for dual use pickleball courts in residential areas, where noise abatement techniques were required.

Andy is a 1968 graduate of Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree in English Education. She has several years’ experience teaching English composition and technical writing on the high school and college level.

Andy was a technical editor at California Institute of Technology in the Earthquake Engineering Department working with PhD candidates. More recently she was the Satellite Systems Coordinator for GE Medical Systems Television, planning satellite installations at hospitals across the US.

Andy is also a year-round pickleball player, having taken up the sport as the pandemic closed the possibility for other activities. She has played in various tournaments and won a medal in the Wisconsin Senior Olympics. Andy volunteers at tournaments as a pickleball desk coordinator and match starter and plays several times a week with local groups in Wisconsin and Florida. She is also on the Board of Directors of the local pickleball club.

Andy is involved in preparing all of our sound assessment reports.

Braxton Boren is an Associate Professor of Audio Technology at American University, specializing in room acoustics and sound simulation. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Northwestern University and received a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue his Master’s in Physics from the University of Cambridge. He completed his PhD in the Music and Audio Research Laboratory at New York University. He worked for two years as a researcher in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at Princeton University before beginning his current position at American University. He teaches courses on room acoustics, computer simulation, digital signal processing, and the human auditory system. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is a Full Member of the Acoustical Society of America and the Audio Engineering Society.

John Robert Unetich, Bob’s grandson, is busy using his math and science education, plus onsite training in acoustical measurement techniques, to accurately test the sound characteristics of many pickleball paddles and balls. These tests include various well defined acoustics parameters such as LAF (level, A curve Fast Mode), Leq (equivalent noise level) and Lpeak, a measurement of the instantaneous peak pressure amplitude of an impulse sound. These measurements also include both time domain waveform details and frequency domain parameters such as pitch and spectral purity.

The collection of data requires a secure database and he is managing this task with cloud based storage. Statistical methods, such as standard deviation calculations, are employed to enhance accuracy and repeatability and each piece of test equipment undergoes a regular rigorous calibration procedure.

JR uses Audacity software for waveform analysis and REW (Room Eq Wizard) Software along with calibrated condenser microphones from Dayton Audio to do Sound Pressure Level and spectral analysis measurements.

We offer a paddle sound measurement service so contact us if you would like us to test and report on the sound level performance of your paddle.