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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