In the current construction environment, usually, an overlooked aspect when designing a workspace, home, institutional or commercial environment is acoustics. Being one of the 5 senses, sound plays a critical role in how a human being experiences the world around them.

What aspects make an environment a comfortable place to live/work in? Colors, smells, and texture all contribute in enhancing the said environment, sound, most definitely should be considered.

Our senses are bombarded with stimuli millions of times a day. Imagine of disruptive or distracting sounds add to the plethora of stimulus our bodies have to decipher on a daily basis. Acoustics plays a major role in this. Sounds like telephones, printers, noisy neighbors, traffic, airplane noise, etc., can cause sensory overload, undue stress, conflict and high turnover.

Private conversations are no longer private, when everybody around you can clearly understand conversations from a distance. Acoustics has a hand at all of this.

In Hospitals, patients need their sleep to allow their bodies to heal. Acoustics are critical in these environments. In Schools, where information is disseminated from teacher to student, any undue distractions will affect how effective lessons are taught. In Homes, a person’s personal refuge, if it is a noisy environment, how can one rest and relax after a long days work. From an entertainment standpoint, acoustics can enhance a home theater or stereo system and make these systems sound as good as can be, maximizing the value of the purchased product. In Restaurants, where customers come to enjoy a fine meal, a glass of wine while the converse with their companions. How can one do this if they had to decipher their conversations among other conversations from adjacent tables.

Acoustics are integral for comfort, privacy and overall sanity.

 

Active Acoustics

There are three main techniques in controlling sound via acoustics, also know as the A B C’s of acoustics:  A for absorption, B for blocking and C for covering.  The “C” is done by Active acoustics or Sound Masking or by masking unwanted distracting noise by masking it.

In the 1950’s a German team named Quickborner invented the open office plan; no walls, a shared workspace.  What was also realized it was in fact a very noisy and high stress environment.  What they did find, was that workstations found under air-conditioning ducts and vents seemed to be the most comfortable workstations around, not because of the temperature but because of the noise generated by the high flow of air.

Sound masking was developed, in the 1970’sbased on this concept.  Mask all unwanted noise with a noise virtually accepted in all work environments, in this case air-conditioning.

In the 1990’s, Dr. John C. Heine, of Cambridge Sound Management System, revolutionized the delivery system by utilizing direct field masking and customizing “Pink” noise to the human hearing spectrum.  This innovation has made Cambridge Sound Management Systems the premier sound masking system in the world.

Cambridge Sound Management Systems products are distributed in South East Asia solely by EMPI.

 

Passive Acoustics

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