SOUND MASKING

Sound Masking Technology

What is sound masking and how does it work?

Sound masking is one of the most cost-effective things a business can do to reduce unwanted noise and increase speech privacy.

In a nutshell adding sound to a space makes the space seem quieter. It sounds counter-intuitive, but it is true. This is because the added sound reduces the intelligibility of speech. When you cannot understand what someone is saying, their words are less distracting — in fact, you probably don’t even notice them.

Sound masking can be explained by analogy with light. Imagine a dark room where someone is turning a flashlight on and off. The light is very obvious and distracting. Now imagine that the room lights are turned on. The flashlight is still being turned on and off but is no longer noticeable because it has been “masked”. Sound masking is a similar process of covering a distracting sound with a more soothing or less intrusive sound.

One of the most effective solutions to reduce auditory distraction is to install a sound masking system. These systems are designed to introduce low-level noises that subtly raise the ambient sound level, rendering office and outdoor noise less noticeable and speech virtually unintelligible.

Sound Masking is a specifically tuned ambient background sound that targets the same frequency as human speech, reducing its intelligibility. Sound masking does not eliminate all noises in an environment; it simply reduces the area where human speech is intelligible and distracting. The resulting environment leads to greater productivity and increased privacy and comfort.

Making privacy simple

Sound masking systems utilise a series of speakers that are typically installed within the plenum space of a buildings ceiling.

When working space sounds just right

Imagine an office where private conversations stay private, work areas stay quiet, and sound is efficiently managed to ensure maximum productivity.

Privacy is often an issue in offices and other enclosed spaces. For instance, when an office space is overly quiet every sound can break concentration. Conversely, in an office that is too loud the conversations of co-workers are distracting and affect productivity. Both situations create less-than-ideal work environments.  Purposefully adding sound into an open office environment lets you control the sound levels overall, improving speech privacy – rendering private conversations unintelligible to nearby listeners – and creating an environment with fewer distractions.

“Sound being unseen is often forgotten, or worse ignored in the design process. Spaces must not only look great; they must sound great too”.

Who Needs Sound Masking

Sound masking is beneficial for a diverse range of workplaces including:

• Health Care
• Hotels
• Call Centre
• Offices
• Government Buildings
• Financial Services

Improve Productivity and Enhance Privacy with Sound Masking

Sound masking is the addition of an unobtrusive background sound, similar to airflow, to reduce the intelligibility of human speech and reduce distractions. The resulting environment leads to greater productivity and increased privacy and comfort.

The video below shows how the Soft dB Sound Masking System works.

Sound Masking Video

What makes our Sound Masking System so good?

Flexibility, Adaptability, Scalability and Usability

Unlike other sound masking systems that need to be adjusted manually, the Soft dB Sound Masking System is adaptive to the real-time conditions in the space. It constantly monitors the ambient noise levels and makes automatic adjustments to compensate for any changes.

Because sound is energy, whenever a noise source, like a human voice, passes through a masking sound wave, it is dissipated and loses energy and intelligibility. This makes it possible for conversations to be held at normal volume levels and not be intelligible beyond 15 or 20 feet in open space. It also makes it possible to achieve speech confidentiality in closed areas like offices or patient rooms.

Spec sheets are available on request.