The 877 men and women of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office provide law enforcement service for the county's 475,000 residents. Many of these deputies use the County’s firearms range, located on the Sheriff’s Office property in Cocoa, Fla. Deputies would be surprised to find that they would soon need assistance from a different kind of agency whose path they may have never crossed until now – NASA.
Instructors and deputies soon began to notice the effect of the high level of noise the gunshots made at the range on their hearing. Despite wearing ear protection, Firearms Range Master, Andy Seminick, the range instructors and practicing deputies all worried about the risk of hearing loss. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office did not want to expose this risk to its personnel any longer so they searched for a solution and found SATOP.

SATOP presented the challenge to Space Alliance Partner, Dynacs, Inc, a NASA contractor whose experience in space systems, including chemistry of coatings, and material physics would come in handy.
Lead by Chief Engineer and Deputy Program Manager, Stan Starr, and with the assistance of Dr. Max Kandula, a specialist in acoustics modeling, engineers at Dynacs Inc. began investigating a solution. Their analysis found that the high noise level seemed to be caused by the existing structure of the roof, which was reflecting gunshot noise back into the building. In addition, the concrete flooring added to the sound amplification.

By using gun shot data and their technical expertise, Dynacs was able to provide the solution of replacing the existing roof extensions at the range with specific barriers, using rubber matting for the flooring and changing the roof’s absorbent insulation. With these modifications, sound would now either be directed out of the building or absorbed by the new flooring and insulation.

“We are very grateful for the prompt and professional job that SATOP did for our agency,” said Sheriff Philip B. Williams of Brevard County. “They were able to look at the very technical aspect of our excessive noise problem and offer inexpensive and easy solutions. It was a pleasure working with them.“