To achieve optimal acoustics in an environment all you must remember is ABC. This simple acronym can help you solve most uncontrolled noise problems your space may be experiencing.
Aborb
Sound travels very easily through a space where it can reverberate or bounce around and not have any means to stop it or absorb it. If your space has a lot of glass, exposed or hard ceilings, polished concrete flooring, or metal furniture then you know what I mean. It is more of an echo chamber than an office space. By adding acoustically absorptive materials such as ceiling tiles, acoustical panels, soft/carpeted flooring, fabric wrapped workstation partitions, etc. you will see a dramatic reduction in the reflection of sound in your space and a great reduction in the distance in which conversation or sounds can be heard.
Block
Open plans are a staple in most collaborative office layouts today. While those spaces have a lot of advantages, they create acoustical issues because it creates a direct line for sound to travel from one end of a room to the other will no obstruction. Sound can be blocked by simply putting a barrier around the source or around the listener to defend them from hearing outside sounds. These barriers can be walls, filing cabinets, and even the systems furniture in that open space. Open plan offices will never go away but there are more reasonable solutions to cut back on distracting noises in the open office. To minimize the direct path of sounds you can increase the height of partitions in the systems furniture, have walls go all the way to the deck, put loud machines such as fax/copier in a separate smaller room, position your call center further away in remote or isolated areas, and other simple solutions such as these.
Cover
Once you have created a space with quality Absorption and Blocking you will be faced with a challenge of an extremely quiet space. Silence is the best conduit for sound to travel. The final stage in sound control is adding back controlled sound. The solution here is Sound Masking. Sound Masking creates a scientifically balanced sound that will cover most unwanted noise and masks frequencies in speech. With a sound similar to softly blowing air, sound masking creates a new background or ambient sound level that enables employees to focus on their work because they will worry less about their conversations being heard and they will not be distracted by unwelcomed noises.
All three of these are required to make your space acoustically suitable for employees to focus on their work. The most common situation we encounter is that Absorb and Block are considered in the design phase but Cover is either forgotten or not known as an option. In some cases, we are brought to a space to quote sound masking but without the appropriate absorption and blocking in an environment the sound masking will not have the desired effect. This is why all three a necessary to have the ideal acoustical environment for your office.
Give SCS a call to learn more about the ABC’s of acoustics!