Ill. Logica Call Centre, Bridgend, UK A lot has been written about working conditions in call centres and other customer contact centres, but actually very little about acoustics. Apart from the fact that they are noisy and that employees tend to suffer from noise exposure similar to that of industry workers. That is why, the […]
Offices
THOUGHTS ABOUT OPEN PLAN SPACES STANDARD 3382-3
This is an interview with PhD Valtteri Hongisto, Senior Research Scientist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and Adjunct Professor at Helsinki University of Technology. He has performed a lot of acoustic research and has been involved in the creation of standards and guidelines, for example the Acoustic Classification of Spaces in buildings SFS […]
ABSORBING TRANSPARENCY – A WINNING THEME
Four architecture students from KTH in Stockholm received the first price at the the Future Workplace contest. Their proposal called “Absorbing Transparency” convinced the jury. High demands on acoustics They choose to create a room structure with high acoustic features to secure that transparency does not lead to an increase of soundlevels. The focus is […]
“New descriptors for open offices are needed – NOW!”
Alternative room acoustic descriptors for open offices – progresses in standardization Pierre Chigot, Saint-Gobain Ecophon SA, France Pierre Chigot, Saint-Gobain Ecophon France Pierre Chigot explained us about the limitations regarding the use of Reverberation Time for acoustical assessment of open-plan offices. Large variance between measurement positions at low frequencies and poor reactivity to changes in […]
More open-plan office acoustics
Have a look at some more summaries on open-plan office acoustics. “Determination of acoustic conditions in open offices and suggestions for acoustic classification” Valtteri Hongisto, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Turku, Finland DL2 and “radius of distraction” as the future acoustic descriptors in open offices? Speech privacy and the distraction efficiency of surrounding speech can […]
“How you improve speech privacy in open-plan offices”
Reported from ICA Madrid John Bradley – National Research Council, Montreal Better speech privacy in open-plan offices can be most consistently achieved by a combination of quantitative design procedures and validation measurements, says John Bradley. This has not usually been done in the past because of the lack of convenient design and measurement tools. While […]
Successful open plan office acoustics sessions at Noise at Work Forum in Lille, France
As previously announced, specific sessions on Open plan office acoustics respectively Call Centre acoustics took place yesterday 4th July at the European Forum on Effective Solutions for Managing Occupational Noise Risks in Lille (France). The sessions gathered approxilately 80 persons and vivid disussions took place after the presentations. The conclusions presented by the chairmen to […]
True insulation performance between offices – Canadian guidelines
A Canadian guide defines best practice in sustainable, public financed office buildings. In section 2.9.1, named “Flanking and Isolation”, performance criteria and methods are addressed: (…) The integrity of acoustical partitioning can be maintained by: * Extending partitions above the suspended ceiling; * Eliminating holes for ducts, pipes, conduits, cables etc.; * Providing appropriate acoustical […]
“Create Sound Policies”
Reported live from Ecophon 5th International Acousticians’ Seminar Marc Janssen of Ecophon (abstract) urged the participants to start working with Sound Policies. “We have to put requirements on paper. Standards help a lot. Use them to create sound policies, a tool to maintain or guarantee the quality of a workplace concept. It can among other […]
New French standard on office acoustics
NF S31- 080, Acoustics – Offices and associated areas – Acoustic performance levels and criteria by type of area, published January 2006, is the first French standard on office acoustics. It is designed as a reference document for clients to express their requirements, as well as a guide-line for office designers. Description Nine room types […]
