• Corporate ,
• Tags: noisy office, quieter office, reduce office noise, sound masking, sound reduction, soundproofing
• 23 Jul

The open office plan has companies getting creative with how they keep the noise down.

Some use headphones to combat the noise in an open office plan, while other companies are turning to different technologies to help diffuse the noise. Either way, it’s not difficult to find stats on how “The lack of of sound privacy is often cited as the biggest complaint when it comes to employee morale”. Open office implementation has been around long enough now that the shine has worn off and many employees are not a fan.

Additional construction to a space to add sound buffering materials may not be feasible for everyone who has implemented the open office concept, or is having general noise issues with their business space. While noise cancelling headphones are great, another option for offices is transformable spaces. These spaces have movable materials that allow for a smaller, quieter meeting space to be created and unfolded when not being used.

Another interesting option is sound diffusing in the office space itself. For example, Cambridge Sound Management “has developed sound masking technology that doesn’t cancel the noise (like a noise-cancellation headset), but rather diffuses it, so that the human ear doesn’t focus on another person’s voice.” (Shut up, shut up, shut up! How gadgets and tech are reducing open office noise). In fact, this type of sound masking “makes a building seem quieter by raising the ambient noise level of an environment and making speech noise less intelligible and therefore less distracting.” and Cambridge Sound Management’s technology has options for doing this through direct, indirect, or a fusion of both. (PoE Fusion Sound Masking Technology)

Whichever way works best, decreasing the noise and keeping employees happy is high on many company’s to do list!

Have questions on sound masking? Contact Us!

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