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What is Sound Masking
Sound Masking is the addition of an unstructured sound to an environment that fills in the sound spectrum and makes the structured sound of human speech less intelligible. Usually it’s an unintrusive sound like airflow, similar to a typical modern HVAC system.
HOW TO ACHIEVE SPEECH PRIVACY
How Sound Travels
Like light, sound is a wave and spreads out in all directions from a source. Hard surfaces reflect it, walls block it, and soft surfaces absorb it. Other sounds can cover it up. But unimpeded, sound can travel pretty far.
Ever hear the saying, “it’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop?” The reason you can “hear a pin drop” over distances is because there’s nothing to cover or otherwise impede the sound from being detected by your ears.
Start With The ABC’s
Absorb, Block, and Cover – “The ABC’s” – represent the three ways you can improve your acoustic environment and achieve necessary privacy levels. Absorption of sound waves by using a high-NRC-rated ceiling tile or acoustic wall panels, Blocking by using high-STC-rated panels, partitions, walls, windows, etc. Covering by adding a source of unstructured [i.e., not music, which is information and therefore distracting], low-level background sound, known as sound masking or white noise. Most office environments will require some combination of these three tools to provide an acoustically pleasing atmosphere. In most cases, no one tool by itself will solve your privacy needs. While Covering provides the greatest increase in privacy per dollar invested, it must be used in conjunction with the proper mixture of Absorption and Blocking components in order to achieve specific speech privacy levels.
The ROI of Sound Masking
It’s no secret that distracted workers cost your business money. It’s a subtle leak that virtually every business has, and it cost businesses like yours an estimated $587 billion, according to studies by BASEX. On the other hand, by making simple and inexpensive improvements to your offices’ acoustics, you can realize dramatic productivity increases using the workers you’ve already got.