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Masking Unwanted Noise is the 'Sound' Solution For most office workers today, the dream of the big corner office is a far cry from reality. Instead, current trends in
office design have relegated some 25 million Americans to open-plan office space, or "cube farms," where a sense of teamwork and
camaraderie may flourish - but so do distractions.
While some of those distractions are intentional, many are not - such as the sound of phones ringing, office equipment whirring or beeping, and other workers conversing. At best, those distractions become a minor annoyance. At worst, they result in decreased productivity and employee dissatisfaction. "Open-plan space is the current 'fashion' in office design, partly because people believe it is more cost-effective, but also because it is conducive to the team concept many organizations have adopted, " says Dr. Jack Heine, Ph.D. in Acoustics and CEO of Cambridge Sound Management, an acoustical engineering and personal sound management company. "Whatever the impetus, more and more of these open offices are being built, which means there are more and more distractions keeping workers from producing at their most efficient level." A Yankelovich study conducted for the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), for instance, found that conversational noise was the number one complaint of office workers, and that an overwhelming 70% said they would be more productive if there were fewer noise distractions. Similarly, in a study by Armstrong World Industries, 52% of workers reported that the noise level in their workplace was stressful and 81% said they could get more work accomplished if their workplace was quieter. So what is the answer? Since it is unlikely that the open-plan office is going to go away anytime soon - and since phones will continue to ring and people will continue to talk - the next best thing is to mask the intrusive sound so that it is less distracting. Unfortunately, the elaborate, in-ceiling sound masking systems used by many giant corporations are very expensive, require professional installation, and cannot be adjusted by individual users. Now there's another solution available in the new Sonet Acoustic Privacy System (APS), developed by Cambridge Sound Management. Engineered to be as effective as the office-wide systems yet vastly more affordable, Sonet is designed as individual-user units, similar in size to the smallest personal computer speakers. The system works by blanketing an individual's workspace with unobtrusive, natural background sound that reduces the intelligibility, and therefore the distraction, of nearby conversations and other sounds. "The Sonet system is not like the so-called 'white noise' or sound select sleep aids, which actually produce relatively obtrusive noise from a single point source," Dr. Heine explains. "Instead, Sonet uses two tiny emitters to create a gentle whooshing sound that fades into the background as it masks unwanted noise." Sonet is based on Qt quiet technology, an acoustic breakthrough created by BBN, the company that developed the Internet for the Department of Defense in the 1970s. Qt technology enables the sound-masking principles and effectiveness of elaborate in-ceiling systems to be miniaturized, while still providing high-quality acoustics. The result is the first sound-masking system that is quick and easy to install, personalized to the user, and incredibly low in cost. Each Sonet APS consists of two emitters and a sound generator/volume control unit, each of which measures just 6"x3"x1.5". Adhesive-backed Velcro pads on each component make installation fast and simple, and allow the units to be easily moved whenever necessary. And at $99, the Sonet APS is significantly less expensive than total-office, in-ceiling systems, making it imminently more affordable for virtually any office space -- including home offices. "Because of the gains in productivity as noise distractions are reduced, each Sonet should pay for itself in less than month for an average professional employee," Dr. Heine notes. "Equally important, employees like the system - and because they are happier with their workspace environment, they experience less stress and raise their productivity even higher." Indeed, in the Armstrong study cited above, sound masking measures increased worker satisfaction levels with the open-plan environment by a whopping 174% in terms of distraction from nearby conversations, identified as the biggest problem. Worker stress was reduced by 27%, and employees reported an average 13% increase in their effectiveness on the job. "While even Sonet can't completely eliminate distractions in an open-plan office, it can make an enormous difference in workers' comfort level and productivity," Dr. Heine adds. "And when coupled with other acoustic design improvements - such as sound-absorbing panels, staggered office openings, and sound-absorbing ceiling and floor treatments - Sonet's sound-masking ability can give open-plan offices the environment conducive to teamwork that they were meant to have." Cambridge Sound Management is headquartered at 33 Moulton Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, telephone (617) 499-8090. The Sonet Acoustic Privacy System may be ordered by calling toll-free 1-877-656-8090 or online at www.officebuzz.com. Source: Cambridge Sound Management [] 
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