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!

It’s easy to take a good guess from the name, but just what is sound masking? Simply described, it’s “the process of adding background sound through speakers installed in the ceiling or strategically placed acoustical fabrics to reduce noise distractions, protect speech privacy, and increase employee comfort and satisfaction in an office setting.” (Would your office benefit from Sound Masking?)

Not to be confused with sound cancelling, sound masking “systems utilize a neutral sound spectrum, with no discernible pitch or salient tone-color. This is provided by “pink noise” which is a broad-band sound with equal energy per proportional division of frequency (e.g. equal energy per octave). Not calling attention to itself, sound masking systems also entail a wide dispersion of sound for spatial uniformity so there are no hot spots or nulls discernible as someone walks across the space.” (Corporate Environments and Sound Masking)

How is sound masking different from white noise?

“White noise meshes 20 and 20,000 Hz frequencies together all at the same time with equal intensities… It’s like the fuzzy, static sound a TV or radio produces when a signal is not coming in clearly, blurring into a “shushing” noise.” Also, “white noise is localized which means the source of the sound is easily distinguishable, like you would be able to point to a radio that is turned on and playing without great reception.” (Benefits of Sound Masking and White Noise)

So, why is sound masking such a hot topic? Why would an office need it?

“The modern office space has a problem with speech privacy. This is a concern across all workplaces including corporate, education, healthcare, government and law, financial services, and hospitality… Sound masking is a key tool that can help business owners solve the speech privacy problem. Sound masking typically reduces the area where speech is intelligible and distracting from upwards of 50 feet to around 15 feet, depending on the product installed.”

And to put some numbers to it… “A 2014 study by Steelcase/lpsos found that employees lost as much as 86 minutes per day due to noise distractions.” (Would your office benefit from Sound Masking?)

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Note: While Ten10 Technology has tried to be as informative as possible and link to factual information, it is always encouraged to double check facts and perform your own research.