Businesses invest a lot of time and money to create the ideal environment for their staff's comfort. State of the art lighting, climate control and ergonomically designed furniture are all now commonplace in the office environment.
But there is one, often overlooked aspect that should be given equal importance : acoustics.
Good accoustics are essential, ensuring the correct levels of privacy in both an enclosed as well as Open-Plan 'stress risk' area.
Did you know that it takes on average 15 minutes to regain concentration after being disturbed at work?
The most common sources of noise are: Vocal Colleagues
Telecommunication Equipment
Printers
Cooling or Ventillation Equipment
Outside Noises
Some distractions are little more than momentarily alarming - for example a door slamming.
These type of impulse noises are unlikely to cause prolonged distraction, Impact noise, which goes on for longer or occurs regularly - for example footsteps on a hard floor - can be reduced by laying carpet.
Common absorption indices for an office are:
Carpet 0.22
External Walls 0.03
Windows 0.03
Ceiling 0.10 - 0.95
Occupied Workstation 0.30____________
0 = 0% efficiency (no sound is absorbed)
1 = 100% efficiency (all sond is absorbed)
We can reduce noise disruption, increase confidentiality and profitibility to your organisation by implementing the following:-
Rockfon Ceiling Tiles
Rockfon is our tile manufacturer of choice and is well suited to a wide range of application areas, where high aesthetics, high quality of finish and strong long term performance for a good indoor environment is reguired.
It is sized to fit into the standard lay-in, metric or imperial ceiling systems which is essential when retrofitting into existing ceiling grids where changing the tiles will improve the acoustic absorption coefficient of the spaces dramatically.  Wall Art and Ceiling Islands
To assist in the acoustic control in buildings with plaster, metal and concrete type ceilings where suspended ceilings are not an option, individual suspended acoustic panels and small areas of acoustic suspended ceiling, called ceiling islands, can be employed to help reduce the reflective nature of these surfaces.
In certain environments where the fixing of fabric covered acoustic wall panels is not aesthetically acceptable, then acoustic panels framed to create the important air gap and finished as wall art can be a good solution.
Acoustic Panels
These panels are used to clad wall surfaces and the backs of furniture items like storage cabinets to reduce the reflective nature of these surfaces and assist in absorbing sound energy.
They are secured in an aluminium frame that creates an air gap between the panel and structure, which increases the efficiency of absorbing the sound energy.
The panels can be manufactured to specific sizes and upholstered in a choice of fabrics to suit the interior landscape.
LogiSon Sound Masking
When attempting to resolve noise problems, control strategies often pursue the ''Quest for Silence'' - a notion that good acoustics are achieved when the sound levels in space are as low as possible, with zero being the best.
The noise floor is the level of continiuos sound that characterises a space at any given time, if this floor is too high, the environment will be irritating and tiring. If this floor is too low, conversations and noises can be easily overheard, compromising both confidentiality and concentration. Noticeable rises and falls in sound over time make it even more difficult fo remployees to 'block out' noise.
Sound masking makes conversation and noise more difficult to hear and comprehend, reducing distractions and providing confidentiality for employee's activities and conversations. It also reduces the variations in the volume of sound over time and across the space, making the facility appear quieter and movements from one area to another less intrusive.
Benefits include:
Increased Speech Privacy
Reduced Noise Disruption
Improved Concentration
Increased Productivity
Reduced Project Costs
Increased Facility Flexibillity
Simultaneous Paging & Music
Quick Return on Investment
Noise and Concentration
These illustrations show how noise effects the concentration levels in an office and the effectiveness of sound management at limiting unwanted noise. Before
Levels of concentration in the building before noise management is employed. The results show speech from one source affecting concentration in many areas of the office (pink). | | | After
Levels of concentration in the building with integrated noise management. Results show areas where speech travel is limited (pink). This creates small, positive communication areas, while other people not involved in the conversation will remain unaffected. | |  |
Noise and Speach Privacy
These illustrations show how noise effects speech privacy levels in an office environment and the effectiveness of sound management at limiting unwanted noise
Before
Levels of speech privacy in the building before noise management is employed. Results show that areas where conversations are intelligible to listeners (pink) cover a large area of the office. | | | After
Levels of speech privacy in the building with integrated noise management. Areas where speech is intelligible are reduced to a small radius around the immediate source. This means greatly increased privacy for the persons conversation. | | |
LogiSon is a fully digital sound masking, paging and music system that provides benefits far beyond those of traditional masking systems that people are generally familiar with i.e. White Noise.
This network is unique in providing control of addressable speakers from a central control panel or laptop equipped with Acoustic Network Management Software.
This allows for individual speake radjustment capabilities.
Each primary network hub contains communication technology, a 100% random masking sound generator, amplifier and even seperate volume and equaliser controls for masking & paging
The fully-digital network easily keeps pace with changes in your facility because it can be quickly returned or re-programmed without rewiring or requiring access to the ceiling.
This system can be installed in new or retrofit space of any size.
If necessary it can be easily expanded or relocated to meet changing needs.
Acoustic Privacy Between Offices A. Normal Privacy
Office 1
The ambient background sound level is 30dB(A) Low level
The conversation raises this sound level to 65dB(A) High level
Emergence is 35dB(A) (difference between high and low sound pressure
levels. The lower the figure the better the acoustic comfort)
Office 2
The ambient background sound level is 30dB(A) Low level
The partition insulation is 30dB(A)
Therefore the conversation transmitted from office 1 is 35dB(A) High level
The emergence is therefore 5dB(A)
Result: Audible speech no privacy
| | | B. Confidential Privacy (Fixed option)
Office 1
The ambient background sound level is 30dB(A) Low level
The conversation raises this sound level to 65dB(A) High level
Emergence is 35dB(A) (difference between high and low sound pressure levels)
Office 2
The ambient background sound level is 30dB(A) Low level
The partition insulation is 38dB(A)
Therefore the conversation transmitted from office 1 is 27dB(A) High level
The emergence is therefore -3dB(A)
Result: Confidential privacy
| | | C. Confidential Privacy (Flexible option)
Office 1
The ambient background sound level with sound masking is 40dB(A) Low level
The conversation raises this sound level to 65dB(A) High level
Emergence is 25dB(A) (difference between high and low sound pressure levels)
Office 2
The ambient background sound level with sound masking is 40dB(A) Low level
The partition insulation is 30dB(A)
Therefore the conversation transmitted from office 1 is 35dB(A) High level
The emergence is therefore -5dB(A)
Result: Confidential privacy | | |
Sectors & Areas where this system can benefit include:
Accountants - Banks - Building Societies - Solicitors
Call Centres
Open Plan Offices
Confidential Meeting Rooms
Reception Areas
Hospitals - Public & Recuperation Areas
Doctor Surgeries
Care Homes
Restaurants
Public Buildings - Schools - Inland Revenue Offices etc.
This system and all of the above can be totally funded via our Finance Lease Facility which offers various Taxation Benefits.
More information can be found under our Funding Faciity that we are able to provide; which is detailed in our website under our About Us section.
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