Does your company’s open floor plan make it difficult to have private conversations? Have your employees complained about noise levels being a distraction while they’re trying to work? Sound masking can solve both of these office issues, as well as other noise-related concerns.

Affordable and innovative, sound masking has helped businesses everywhere achieve the silence and privacy they require. As a provider of sound masking systems, Aufderworld is happy to tell you all about this groundbreaking product and show you what it can do for your business. Read on to learn what this tech does, what it’s made of, and if it’s right for you.

Sound Masking Systems: What Do They Do?

Sound masking devices (or speech privacy systems, as they are sometimes called) work by projecting ambient noise that is nearly undetectable to the human ear.

While it may seem counterintuitive to drown out sound with more sound, the frequencies emitted by sound masking technology match the frequency of human speech, allowing them to muffle conversations and other distraction-inducing sounds. You’ll still be able to hear coworkers near to you talk, but those who are further away become unintelligible and therefore less distracting

The Components of a Sound Masking System

Most sound masking systems involve three components:

Sensors

The sensors in a sound masking system are designed to constantly monitor noise levels and send a message to the controller (explained below) when adjustments are needed.

Controller

The controller receives messages from the sensors installed throughout the room and emits an ambient noise that automatically adjusts based on the noise level.

Speakers

Speakers are spread throughout your workspace and aimed upward so the white noise emitted from the controllers bounces off the ceiling and goes back to the work area.

Why Are Sound Masking Systems Useful?

Sound masking systems are useful for a variety of reasons; they can block noise as well as provide white noise if a space is too quiet. Sound masking is awesome because it:

Ensures Privacy

For government organizations or industries such as healthcare, privacy is not only important, but a legal requirement. Sound masking can help secure the privacy of vulnerable parties by muffling conversations so that passersby do not overhear confidential information.

Boosts Efficiency

We’ve all been asked to concentrate in less-than-ideal environments. It doesn’t do good things for our working efficiency! Set your employees up for success by giving them a quiet, distraction-free environment with a sound masking system.

Boosts Comfort

You want to enhance worker comfort. In addition to decreasing efficiency, excessive noise can also wreak havoc on your workers’ emotional wellbeing. Stress from constantly being asked to perform in less than ideal conditions can tank worker morale. A sound masking system makes sure this doesn’t happen. A stress-free team is a productive team, too!

Cuts Down on Noise Pollution Indoors

When you think of pollution, noise probably isn’t something that comes to mind—you most likely picture fuel emissions or oil spills. But noise pollution is a very real concern that not only affects our environment, according to Harvard Medicine, but also our health.

“Noise pollution not only drives hearing loss, tinnitus, and hypersensitivity to sound,” it claims, “but can cause or exacerbate cardiovascular disease; type 2 diabetes; sleep disturbances; stress; {and} mental health and cognition problems, including memory impairment and attention deficits.”

When your workers don’t have to deal with as much unwanted sound thanks to a sound masking system, you could potentially help them dodge some of these disastrous aftereffects of an uncontrolled office space. In fact, BuildingGreen explicitly recommends sound masking to help with the issue of noise pollution.

You can’t influence what happens outside of work, but you can at least grant your employees a peaceful respite during their 9-to-5.

Is a Sound Masking System Right for Me?

We’d hazard a guess: absolutely! Absolutely any business can benefit from improved worker comfort and improved efficiency—yes, even those with open office plans. We’ve actually written an entire audio / visual services blog on that topic, so check it out if you’re not quite convinced.

The short version, though: this type of layout, while great for collaboration, isn’t always conducive to a productive and comfortable working environment in all cases. It’s easy to get distracted by faraway water cooler conversation, and in a space where it can sometimes get too loud to hear oneself think, it’s hard for the more introverted worker to find any peace.

With a sound masking system, though, you create a distraction-free workspace in which everyone can work at the noise level that best suits them. You’ll maximize team productivity and comfort by catering to individual worker needs.

Contact Aufderworld for Top-Quality Sound Masking Systems

Aufderworld designs and installs sound masking devices so employees can be more efficient, and guests and tenants can block out distracting noises from others. We’re a Minneapolis A/V company with specializations in countless subsets of that category, and we’d be thrilled to be your partners in your business’s sound-masking endeavors.

Give us a call now at 763-233-7700.