Sound Masking Treatment

Sound masking is based on the phenomenon that when “low level background noise” is added to an environment, intruding speech and noises are less intelligible.   The term “white noise” is widely used when referring to speech privacy or sound masking systems, although these systems don’t actually use white noise.

The technology behind our sound masking treatment came out of the realization by scientists and engineers that “oral privacy” is actually a simple matter of making speech “unintelligible”.   That is, if each of us can’t understand what the other is saying, we effectively establish “oral privacy”–even though we may still be able to see and, to some extent, hear each other.

Sound masking “fills in” the sound spectrum around you with barely perceptible “low level noise” so that speech is rendered unintelligible.   This background noise is designed to sound like typical office air conditioning noise so that it is less noticeable.

The trend in office settings over the past several decades is to down-size, outsource, increase workloads for employees and establish open office plan environments.   As the use of these open floor plans has grown, so has the concerns and complaints about the increased noise and distractions, and their impact on worker performance.   The purpose for introducing a sound masking system is to reduce noise and speech distractions from surround areas, improving worker concentration and performance.

In addition to performance levels, the need for confidentiality is also a concern.    As sensitive information is shared in offices, conference rooms, common rooms and hallways, sound masking plays a key role in protecting the information being delivered.  By simply raising background levels of sound to higher decibel levels, human voice can be disguised and communication protected.

 

Back to Sound 101