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Office acoustics — balancing privacy and collaboration
An office that echoes or lets conversations carry across desks erodes focus and privacy. We balance collaboration with privacy by measuring, designing, and recommending the right materials and systems. We look at the space as a system — layout, finishes, background noise, and speech privacy together — rather than prescribing acoustic panels as a default fix. That approach tends to cost less and perform better than treating symptoms room by room.
When to call us
- You're fitting out or renovating an office and want acoustics designed in, not bolted on afterwards
- You're pursuing a green building or wellness certification that includes acoustic criteria
- Staff are complaining about noise, distraction, or lack of speech privacy
- You're designing a new headquarters or workplace and want acoustic input early
How we help
- Assess reverberation (RT), background noise, and speech privacy
- Design to standard and green-building criteria (e.g. WELL/LEED)
- Recommend sound-absorbing materials and sound masking
- Verify the result after works
What you get
- A reverberation time and background noise measurement report
- An acoustic design specification with target values by space type
- Material and system recommendations, referenced to the design specification
- A commissioning report comparing measured results against target after fit-out
Standards applied
ISO 3382 · green-building criteria (WELL/LEED) · meeting-room targets
FAQ
Can a noisy open-plan be fixed?
Yes — with a combination of absorption, layout, and sound masking to target values.
Can you help with a green-building rating?
Yes — we design and test to the acoustic criteria of WELL/LEED.
Isn't office acoustics just about adding acoustic panels?
Panels are one tool, not the whole answer. Layout, ceiling and floor choice, background sound, and even furniture affect how a space sounds — we look at all of it before recommending treatment, so you're not over-specifying panels to fix a layout problem.
Can you assess our current office before we spend on a fit-out?
Yes — an existing-condition measurement is often the best starting point. It tells us exactly where the space falls short of target, so the fit-out budget goes to the areas that actually need it.
What is sound masking?
Sound masking is a low-level, engineered background sound played through the ceiling to reduce the intelligibility of nearby conversation, improving speech privacy without raising overall loudness. It's one option among several — we'll advise whether it's the right fit for your space rather than defaulting to it.