Is my sound masking system too loud?
“Could our ‘white noise’ sound masking system be too loud?”
Absolutely. While you should be able to hear the noise generated by your sound masking system, it should be a soft background noise. Just loud enough to make conversations across the room hard to follow or reduce the noise in a call center. If you’re in a Doctor’s office or healthcare facility, the consultation in the exam room next will be less distracting, if you can hear it at all.
That’s not very loud. At most, the white noise in your office should measure 48 dB using a sound level meter. For comparison, the sound level in a quiet office or library measures 40 dB, a modern refrigerator measures around 50 dB. An’average’ conversation is around 60 dB.
It’s possible that your sound masking system wasn’t properly commissioned and is louder than it should be.
More commonly, the system was not designed and engineered correctly for the space. If, for example, not enough speakers are deployed in the room, the volume of each speaker needs to be increased to cover the entire space. That’s fine if you’re halfway between two speakers, but if you’re directly under a speaker, the noise will be much more noticeable than it should be.
Even coverage – an appropriate number of speakers playing softly, not a few speakers playing loud – is the key to reducing distractions and enhancing privacy without sounding annoying!
We’ve learned at CTI that many spaces hold fewer people post-pandemic than they were initially set up for. More folks are working from home. That means there’s less noise for the masking system to overcome, making it more noticeable for some people. Your system might need adjustment to compensate for this.
In any case, the best thing you can do is call an experienced, certified AV Integrator like the team at CTI. We’ll inspect your system, take measurements, and verify that it’s properly designed and configured. If changes are necessary, we’ll work out a plan that fits your timeline and budget.
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