Sound Masking

An open plan office can lead to a loss of concentration and performance

Sound Masking Systems

Sound Masking is a very cost effective solution to the problem of improving speech privacy, so often found in today’s modern and fast moving office environment. Often installed as retrofit but best installed during office fit out, Sound Masking has gained the reputation amongst many international companies as one of the most important ways to improve the office environment.

Open plan office sound masking

Open Plan Offices

Without Sound Masking Systems voice clarity in other people’s conversation will lead to a loss of concentration, and eventually to a noticeable reduction in work performance. Sound masking reduces voice clarity as well as reducing the radius of communication, reducing the number of workers effected by the distraction.

Business meeting and conference room sound masking

Meeting Rooms

Cellular offices and meeting rooms are increasingly specified as to where confidential exchanges take place. Coupled with the trend towards lighter and more easily relocatable partitions mean that Sound Masking systems along with acoustic panels and acoustic door seals are increasingly used to achieve privacy.

Medical centres and surgeries sound masking

Medical Centres

In Medical Centres, Surgeries, Counselling rooms and Consulting rooms speech confidentiality is a must have situation and sound masking is a key element in achieving this.

Sound masking systems with public address

Public Address

The ability to deliver high quality Public Address through the Sound Masking system at very little extra cost makes the cost/benefit equation even more weighted on the side of Sound Masking Systems. Various systems are available to treat one-off rooms or entire office blocks.

Sound Masking Installation

Sound Masking systems have been in successful service for some 40 years. Extensive practical experience has clearly demonstrated that attention to detail during the design and commissioning stages certainly pays off. The following are a few key considerations:

  • AET has the design ability to provide bespoke and novel designs.
  • Other features which may be incorporated into the sound masking system, e.g. public address systems etc., should be established at the outset.
  • With large frequency flexibility and wide band adjustment we can always bring the background noise levels up to the current recommendations.
  • Complete floors of office buildings should be treated where possible, since this leads to greater flexibility and lower cost per square metre.
  • The treatment of individual offices as a single project should be avoided, since the results are much better if a series of adjacent offices are treated together. This method means Source of the noise, the Path of the noise, and the Receiver of the noise all benefit from sound masking.

Sound Masking Servicing

With several different servicing options we put the client in control, if you want us only to attend site when something goes wrong, and advise on the cost of fixing the problem, we are happy to do this but the vast majority of clients want our premium service, that extends the warranty of the equipment until such time that the servicing agreement ends. Giving predicable ongoing costs, fast response to problems and a high level of service.

The sound masking system should be left in operation 24 hours a day. Power consumption is very low, and equipment life will in fact be extended if it is not frequently switched on and off; continuous running also avoids acoustic shock. Our inbuilt ramping units adjust the sound masking to your requirements, working around your office hours. The Ramping system has the additional feature of reducing power consumption and thus reducing the units carbon footprint.