Acoustic comfort in offices in Prague at Moráň

A larger number of people in a small space, frequent work phone calls, online meetings, and worsening concentration. These are the signs of some shared "open space" offices. You can probably imagine the situation where you are trying to concentrate on work, but you are significantly disturbed by a phone call from a colleague across from you and at the same time another call from the colleague next to you. This leads to what is known as the Lombard effect, where one person talks louder than the other in an attempt to increase the intelligibility of their speech, thereby increasing the overall noise level in the room.

This is exactly the problem employees faced in the new offices in Prague, where two to four people meet in a small space. The main issue was the reverberation time, which exceeded the upper recommended limit for office spaces. Too many sound waves remained in the area, which were not absorbed by anything.

What is spatial acoustics and why should we pay attention to it?

Spatial acoustics deals with the propagation of sound in space and includes various parameters such as overall noise level, reverberation time, and speech transmission index. In this context, the reverberation time is a key criterion that measures how long a sound is audible in a room after its source has quieted down.

The longer the reverberation, the longer we hear sound in the room. If it is too short, the space is over-damped, and we do not hear it clearly enough. The reverberation time is primarily influenced by the shape of the room, the arrangement and choice of sound-absorbing surfaces, and the surfaces that reflect sound.

The negative impact of poorly resolved spatial acoustics can range from fatigue and stress levels to decreased performance, memory, attention, and even the development of civilization diseases.

Freely suspended absorbers are a quick way to acoustic comfort

For the new offices in Prague, freely suspended Rigitone absorbers became a quick, efficient, and cost-effective solution for achieving acoustic comfort. These absorbers not only represent an interesting design element but also significantly contribute to noise absorption. They can be hung one next to the other to create larger absorbing surfaces or hung on walls like paintings.

"In this case, after the installation of the Rigitone mineral absorbers, the overall noise level dropped by 5 dB. Considering that a change of 3 dB is a doubling, 5 dB is indeed a significant improvement in acoustic comfort and is also an easily noticeable change for the human ear," explains Vojtěch Zítek, product manager at Rigips.

Additionally, these absorbers include Activ'Air® technology, which reduces the concentration of formaldehyde in the interior. Employees can now enjoy not only improved acoustics but also a healthier working environment.

Free acoustic assessment of your space

Are you addressing the reverberation time in your project? With Acoustic Applications, you will receive a rough acoustic assessment that will specify which products from the Rigips and Eurocoustic material portfolio are best suited for your room and what minimum area you need to use them in.