Acoustic Design & Engineering Services

Acoustic Design & Engineering Services

Acoustic Design (ADES) was founded in 1975 as Acoustic Design & Engineering Services. It is today the oldest professional practice of its kind in Africa, specialising exclusively in acoustic design and mechanical noise control engineering design.

The founder Dr Danny Liebenberg cut his teeth in acoustic design at the SABC in the late 50’s, migrated into noise and vibration engineering at Ford Motor in the early 60’s before joining Sound Research Laboratories in the UK in the 70’s. Danny Liebenberg is a registered health practitioner but has retired from field.

In 1975 he relocated to Johannesburg and registered ADES, a professional engineering consultancy. Today ADES and Dr Liebenberg are registered as Category “A” consultants in SADC countries; the United Kingdom and Europe and provided professional input on projects as far afield as Dubai, Bahrain, Australia, and Mauritius.

From the mid 80’s he held corporate membership to the UK Institute of Acoustics, the Southern African Acoustic Institute, SA Institutes for Electrical Engineers and previously the SA Institute for Mechanical Engineers & SA Institution of Civil Engineers and represented the latter two entities at the South African Bureau of Standards for over 10 years.

Acoustic Design is primarily a service orientated company. As such it has been involved in one way or the other in virtually every major project in the Southern Africa and several major projects abroad, as principle consultant or in many instances as associate consultants to other professionals. In addition to their vast in-house expertise, Acoustic Design networks with other professional, each a specialist in his field, that are called in on an ad hoc basis, thus ensuring that the client can rely on a wealth of expertise at any given time.

Acoustic Design has vast experience in the design of luxury hotels such as The Lost City, theatres, conference and church auditoria, lecture theatre and a string of Radisson, Holiday Inn and Protea Hotels. Other recent major projects are the S G Lourens Nurses Training College, a USD 230,000 acoustic upgrade, the Sandton Convention Centre and new Lozitha Palace International Conference Centre in Swaziland, with a USD 350,000 acoustic value. And the new King Mswati III-VVIP Airport Terminal in Swaziland. Additional major projects includes Freedom Park and the Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City, Maropeng - Cradle of Humankind, Roma University in Lesotho, Investec in Perth and more recently 6 major hospital projects in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho and a 4500 seater church in Mauritius for UCKG.

As at January 2016, Acoustic Design is involved in International projects with overall acoustic value in excess of R1-billion for which it is totally responsible for all aspects of acoustics and related issues. The practice at all times carries R2-million PI insurance to provide clients with peace of mind. In the 40 years since inception, there has never been a P I or other claim against it.