Effective sound masking for speech privacy in open plan offices

2008 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 2971-2971
Author(s):  
Joel Lewitz
Keyword(s):  
Open Plan ◽  
Sound Masking

Field study for the evaluation of the acoustic quality of open-plan offices

2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (4) ◽  
pp. 2544-2549
Author(s):  
Patrick Chevret ◽  
Thomas Bonzom ◽  
Lucas Lenne ◽  
Laurent Brocolini ◽  
Julien Marchand
Keyword(s):  
Service Industry ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Occupational Accidents ◽  
Work Organisation ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Open Plan ◽  
Sound Masking

Even if the global health crisis is currently changing the work organisation in offices in the service industry, the problem of noise in open plan offices remains a major challenge with regard to occupational health and well-being. Since 2012, the French National Research and Safety Institute for the Prevention of Occupational Accidents and Diseases (INRS) has been carrying out acoustic surveys in French open-plan offices by measuring both some usual indicators of empty offices (Tr, D2S, Lp4m, rc, Lp) and also the ambient noise levels in activity. In addition, GABO questionnaires have been proposed to employees to assess their perception of the noise environment. So far, 50 open spaces were evaluated, with more or less data collected depending on the situation encountered. Approximately 1,400 employees have already answered the questionnaire. All of the sites visited cover the entire set of activities described by the ISO 22955 standard. An analysis of the links between the acoustic parameters and the perception of employees was carried out. This analysis provides additional information to the studies on the choice of acoustic descriptors and on the use of sound masking systems that aim to control background noise to reduce noise disturbance due to intelligible conversations.

The spatial uniformity of an electronic sound masking system in an open-plan space

2020 ◽  
Vol 148 (4) ◽  
pp. 2440-2440
Author(s):  
Joonhee Lee ◽  
Farideh Zarei ◽  
Roderick Mackenzie ◽  
Vincent Le Men
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Sound ◽  
Spatial Uniformity ◽  
Open Plan ◽  
Sound Masking

scholarly journals Long-term effects of the use of a sound masking system in open-plan offices: A field study

2020 ◽  
Vol 158 ◽  
pp. 107049 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Lenne ◽  
Patrick Chevret ◽  
Julien Marchand
Keyword(s):  
Field Study ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Open Plan ◽  
Sound Masking

The effect of sound masking on employees' acoustic comfort and performance in open-plan offices in Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (1) ◽  
pp. 5678-5683
Author(s):  
Roderick Mackenzie ◽  
Joonhee Lee ◽  
Vincent Le Men ◽  
Farideh Zarei
Keyword(s):  
Work Performance ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Sound Level ◽  
Sound Levels ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Acoustic Comfort ◽  
Sound Environment ◽  
Open Plan ◽  
Sound Masking ◽  
And Performance

Sound masking systems are commonly used in open-plan offices to generate a controlled minimum level of background sound, in order to decrease the signal-to-noise ratio of intrusive speech and blend out transient office noise. However, a question in the acoustical design of offices is whether the self-generated noise of occupants may alone be sufficient to provide the background sound level conditions necessary to achieve similar levels of speech privacy and acoustic comfort as sound masking systems. This study examines the relationship between occupant-perceived speech privacy and acoustic comfort under three different acoustic scenarios (no masking, controlled 42 dBA, and 47 dBA masking sound levels). The study was conducted pre-COVID-19 in two separate open-plan offices located in Quebec, Canada that at the time were close to full occupancy. Employees completed subjective questionnaires before and after each change in conditions, focusing on how the sound environment impacted their comfort and work performance during the study. Statistical results show that the occupants were significantly more satisfied during the two sound masking conditions in comparison to the no-masking condition, where only the occupant-generated and exterior/mechanical system noise was present as the background sound. Implications for open-plan offices with lower occupancy conditions post-COVID-19 are discussed.

The many faces of office noise – case contact center

Facilities ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 454-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Rasila ◽  
Tuuli Jylhä
Keyword(s):  
Call Center ◽  
Office Workers ◽  
Contact Center ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Orientation ◽  
Worker Perceptions ◽  
Open Plan ◽  
Sound Masking ◽  
The Many ◽  
Office System

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to take a look at the phenomena of office noise and to try and outline the worker perceptions of noise in a multi-dimensional and holistic manner. This is done in a case study setting in contact center environment. Design/methodology/approach – The research was carried out in three phases. First, a review of existing research was carried out. Second, 28 interviews were carried out to outline the dimensions of office noise. Third, a set of 20 further interviews were carried out to study the dimensions of noise that appeared from the first phase of the research. Findings – The literature review introduces seven streams of office noise research. None of these looks at the office noise as a holistic and multi-dimensional experience of office workers. The results from the interviews suggest that office workers see the office noise to have negative, neutral and positive aspects. In call center context, the most important aspect of noise includes: psychological and physiological symptoms, dynamism, social setting, knowledge transfer, socialization and sound masking. Research limitations/implications – The data are limited to one specific kind of work setting, namely, contact center environment. Thus, the findings may not be generalized to cover other types of work. Even though the sample size of 48 interviewees is quite big for a qualitative research setting, the basic problem of the research orientation is still present. The results are intended to give an in-depth insight on dimensionality of office noise in the complex interrelated open-plan office system. Originality/value – Existing research on office noises and acoustics tends to see the office noises just as a negative phenomenon. This leads to research settings that neglect the positive aspects of the noise. Further, this leads to somewhat distorted discussion and practical recommendations.

Hybrid actice noise barrier with sound masking in open-plan offices

2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xun Wang ◽  
Yousuke Koba ◽  
Satoshi Ishikawa ◽  
Shinya Kijimoto
Keyword(s):  
Open Plan ◽  
Noise Barrier ◽  
Sound Masking

Sound masking system for open plan office

1979 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 563-563
Author(s):  
William R. Torn
Keyword(s):  
Open Plan ◽  
Sound Masking
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