Speech Privacy Systems
Sound Masking and Speech Privacy Systems
What is sound masking?
Sound masking is the technology that provides speech privacy to an enclosed area for the purpose of decreasing distraction and improving comfort. A sound masking system achieves speech privacy and overall mood enhancement by adding unobtrusive background noise so that unwanted or distracting noise is minimized.
What are the benefits of sound masking?
Sound masking is an effective tool when it achieves speech privacy. Speech Privacy is achieved when individual voices or conversations cannot be isolated or understood. This is important for two reasons. When you achieve speech privacy, you simultaneously improve productivity and confidentiality.
How does sound masking work?
You might be wondering how adding sound to sound accomplishes anything. Fair enough. Adding just any sound would be problematic because the end goal is not to just drown out unwanted noise. Imagine working with jets flying overheard. You might not feel conversationally distracted, but you’re not comfortable either. The answer is the type of sound you add.
The reason you may fall asleep when you lay out at the beach is because all the sounds competing for your attention are not patterned. Similarly, sound masking systems are non-repetitious broad band sounds. There is no natural pattern. There is simply sound at all frequencies, and these sounds fill in the spectrum, so that anyone can tune it all out.
In the workplace, this means a less stressed and more focused environment for maximum employee engagement. In facilities requiring confidentiality, this means privacy for all, because more than ever, Voice and conversation privacy is essential in all medical and legal environments and offices.
Sound Masking Essentials
It’s important to remember we want privacy and comfort, and the good news is that they are not mutually exclusive. Adaptability and flexibility are integral to achieving speech privacy in a comfortable way, and our modern high tech sound masking systems also have the added benefit of playing background overhead music, which complements any office or work environment.
Several independent studies using large and statistically-valid sample sizes produced interesting results. These studies, all of which have been published in peer-reviewed professional journals, showed the following improvements resulted from improved speech privacy levels:
Better focus. The ability of office workers to focus on their tasks improved by 48%
Reduced distractions. Conversational distractions decreased by 51%
Reduced error-rates. Performance of standard “information-worker” tasks (measured in terms of accuracy [error-rates] and short-term memory) improved by 10%
Reduced stress. When measured in terms of the actual physical symptoms of stress, stress was reduced by 27%.
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