Busy offices  usually produce a lot of noise, which makes privacy a very rare commodity. Having to deal with high noise levels can disrupt concentration and have a cumulative effect on employees’ productivity and efficiency.

To ease the effects of  “noise pollution” in an office environment, technologies have been developed to help cancel out the background noise and provide a “cone of silence” for individual work stations, offices and call centers bullpens.

Sound masking systems have advanced far beyond simple acoustic ceiling tiles and insulation. The new technologues use miniature emitters installed in the ceilings to create a pleasant, non-distracting “white noise” that not only blocks outside sounds, but insures private conversations are not overheard.

These devices can be installed and adjusted to suit any size of office. Sound masking systems can be either be used as a stand-alone for a single office or a multi-office system can centrally controlled.

Be aware that sound masking is NOT the same as noise cancellation. Only military facilities have access to true noise cancellation technology, so on the open market only use of headphones or directional microphones actually cancel out ambient sounds. Sound masking creates a cushion of background noise that creates individual “quiet zones” so you do not have to control the source of the sound, but can eliminate it from the immediate environment.

Sound masking also reduces the need for extra insulation between workspaces and the physical sound blockers like plenum barriers and complicated acoustical return air ducts. Architects have more flexibility designing comfortable office spaces that do not depend on using doors and walls to block sound. Contractors can drastically reduce construction costs by installing continual suspending ceiling grids for office complexes since sound masking technology eliminates the need for separate t-bar ceilings in individual rooms.

With professional sound masking devices, organisations have the freedom to using open plan offices and reduce workstation footprints, athough there is a noise threshold that must be calculated to insure optimum efficiency. Sound masking consulatants can determine the correct  acoustic requirements for increased  density in an office space.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Interesting, Office Tips, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.