Sound Masking & Speech Privacy Solutions

The open office is the dominant environment in business today. While this type of office layout may or may not foster increased collaboration, it produces significantly more noise than closed offices or cubicles.

Studies have shown that workers in open offices are up to 66% less productive than those with acoustic privacy. The Gallup organization found that distracted workers are also more likely to be disengaged, have higher rates of absenteeism, and ultimately be more likely to leave. An ASID study found that 75% of respondents listed acoustics as the worst aspect of the office life.

Lack of acoustic privacy has been shown to negatively affect industries where regulations require institutions to maintain basic levels of privacy – such as healthcare, education, government, and financial institutions.

The cost of a noisy workplace represents a significant revenue loss for many businesses. Fortunately, treating bad acoustics is not particularly costly or complicated.

Three Ways To Mask Sound

ABSORB
the sound with acoustic panels

BLOCK
the sound with walls or cubicle partitions

COVER
the sound with a high quality Sound Masking system

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 typically should be used in conjunction with the proper mixture of absorption and blocking components in order to achieve specific speech privacy levels.

Sound masking typically involves mounting music-quality speakers in a grid pattern above the acoustic ceiling tiles, where the sound uniformly filters down into the treated space below. The masking sound is tuned to be both comfortable and effective at masking human speech in the specific acoustic environment being treated.

Sound masking works by filling in the sound spectrum with unstructured sound similar to air conditioning, making speech unintelligible. The goal of any speech privacy system is to add enough sound to an area to cover up speech, yet still be quiet enough to be almost imperceptible. Good, well-tuned, quality sound masking systems will produce sound that your mind naturally tunes out. The more uniformly the sound masking system accomplishes this throughout the treated area, the more “invisible” the sound becomes.

Benefits of Sound Masking

Studies have shown that when organizations addressed workplace noise:

Focus improves by 48%

Distractions decline by 51%

Error rates improve by 10%

Stress declines by 27%

Productivity goes up by up to 40%

Increase Your Bottom Line

The bottom line is, better acoustics can save your business money, and keep your workforce happier and more productive.

David Davis Communications can help you achieve your privacy goals, creating a customized acoustic privacy solution that’s tailored to your environment and budget. Whether you’re treating a small office or an entire facility, sound masking represents a minimal investment for the very real and measurable ROI gains you’ll realize.

Contact us today for a custom privacy solution to improve your entire workspace!

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Sound Masking & Speech Privacy Solutions