Sound Masking System fosters privacy in confined public spaces.
Press Release Summary:
Desktop Sound Masking System, offered in white or black ABS speaker body, can be tweaked to suit room conditions by adjusting amplitude and spectra shapes in increments of ±½ dB. Powered by internal transformer with 120 Vac plug, solution accommodates open-plan offices and waiting rooms and similar spaces that require relatively quiet areas where people can speak to one another but have some degree of speech privacy and low level of distraction.
Original Press Release:
Acoustical Solutions, Inc. Introduces Desktop Sound Masking System
RICHMOND, VA - Traditional acoustical treatment has come a long way. It can be environmentally friendly, customizable, and look great. Proper acoustical treatment lowers excessive, reverberant noise levels, and improves speech intelligibility so people are not yelling over each other to be understood. That is not always all that is required for the optimum acoustic environment, however. This is why sound masking has become the new buzz phrase in open-plan offices and waiting rooms.
Cut-and-dry noise control works well for public facilities like museums, restaurants, shops, and auditoriums, but does not necessarily create the ideal acoustic environment to suit all purposes. Offices and similar spaces need to be fairly quiet areas where people can speak to one another, but they also need to have some speech privacy and a low level of distraction. In other words, excessive sound not only needs to be reduced, but necessary sound must be 'masked'.
Sound masking is an increasingly popular system that raises the frequency of ambient, or background noise to the level of human speech. This makes it so that someone can speak at a normal level and be clearly understood by someone close by, but not have the conversation distract someone in a neighboring work station. This is even more critical due to the increasing popularity of open-plan offices, which is now used in 80% of space planning (International Facility Management Association). The cubicles have been torn down, fostering a team environment and open communication between workers, but also eliminating privacy and increasing distraction.
Last month, an article appeared in The New York Times analyzing the trend toward open-plan offices stating "scientists, for their part, are measuring the unhappiness and the lower productivity of distracted workers. After surveying 65,000 people over the past decade in North America, Europe, Africa and Australia, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, report that more than half of office workers are dissatisfied with the level of "speech privacy," making it the leading complaint in offices everywhere".
"The layout and function of offices is shifting," says Acoustical Solutions, Inc. Sales Manager Dave Ingersoll, "that means that acoustical treatment for these spaces must shift as well. We are now offering the Desktop Sound Masking System, which is an affordable solution for small offices and waiting rooms that need sound masking. This is still fairly new technology, but the desktop system enables sound masking to occur with no retrofitting or complicated installation".
The new Desktop Sound Masking System offered by Acoustical Solutions, Inc. comes in a white or black ABS speaker body and can be uniquely adjusted to suit a variety of room conditions by making adjustments to the amplitude and spectra shapes. This adjustment can be made in increments of +/- ½ dB. It is powered by an internal transformer with a 120 VAC plug
About Acoustical Solutions, Inc.:
Since 1989 Acoustical Solutions, Inc. has provided the detailed expertise needed to serve the noise control community. Acoustical Solutions, Inc. works with a wide variety of customers from commercial and residential development to worship facilities, recording studios and home theater designers. Acoustical Solutions, Inc. offers the industry's most comprehensive selection of noise control and soundproofing products, including a full line of indoor and outdoor industrial, commercial, environmental and architectural noise control products. For more information please visit www.AcousticalSolutions.com, call 1-800-782-5742, or see our media kit.
