The 3 most important tips for ensuring sound insulation in the office

Open-plan offices have been a space-saving and popular workplace design in many companies for years. Not only do they make it possible to distribute more staff in less space, they also symbolize flat hierarchies and simplify internal communication. However, in addition to all the advantages, open-plan offices unfortunately often have one major flaw: the acoustics. At the latest when it gets so bad that your employees can no longer concentrate, something needs to be done. We offer you the 3 most important tips to ensure optimal sound insulation in the open-plan office and improve the room acoustics.

 - The 3 most important tips for ensuring sound insulation in the office

Why sound insulation is so important in the office

Soundproofing measures in the office are not only important when your employees can no longer understand each other or have to shout into the telephone receiver in order to be understood by customers. They are already crucial if your employees are no longer able to concentrate so well or if there is general irritability. It is not uncommon for those affected to not even realize what is causing the feeling of constant stress. A constant subliminal noise level may remain undetected at first glance, but can still have a negative impact on everyone in the office. For this reason, you should by no means underestimate the importance of room acoustics in an open-plan office.

Improving room acoustics in the office: 3 simple tips

Many suppliers of soundproofing measures advertise their (unfortunately often very expensive) products, which are supposed to provide significantly better room acoustics. However, there are already numerous small and far less expensive ways to reduce the sound in your office.

 

1. eliminate unnecessary causes of noise

Strange noises can be caused by the smallest things, which can usually be rectified very easily. For example, make sure you provide underlays, such as mouse pads and office chair mats, to reduce the scratching of the mouse on the table or the castors on the floor. Small things that seem objective at first can lead to disturbing noises due to their summation.

Coasters for cups and quiet keyboards also contribute to better room acoustics. Discuss with your employees simple ways to reduce the noise level, such as muting the computers – numerous „ping“-„s due to team notifications, incoming e-mails, battery messages, etc. can otherwise also accumulate.

 

2. furniture and decorations for sound insulation in the office

No matter how well you eliminate unnecessary sources of noise, there is always a certain level of noise in a large room. Especially when phone calls or conversations are held between employees. The aim here is to break up and capture the sound as best as possible. Furniture can already be a great help here. Soft surfaces, such as sofas, carpets or even office shelves, are ideal for absorbing sound. You can also use furniture to provide visual privacy between workstations and at the same time give your employees the opportunity to store documents close at hand.

Room dividers are also a good alternative to furniture to ensure both visual and sound insulation. It is often also possible to purchase special sound-absorbing room dividers. Finally, plants are another option that should not be underestimated when it comes to improving the room acoustics in your office. This is because they not only ensure better air, but can also reduce noise in the room.

 

3. walls and ceilings – pictures, acoustic columns, panels and curtains

The next step is to avoid bare walls, as the sound bounces off them quickly and is redistributed throughout the room. There are numerous inexpensive options for this, such as special sound-absorbing pictures or columns in the corners of the rooms. Acoustic panels on the ceilings and curtains on the walls can also work wonders to keep the noise level in the office to a minimum. What's more, you can also use all of these sound reduction measures to make your office more visually appealing. Targeted splashes of color immediately make the office friendlier and ensure a pleasant working atmosphere.

ComPeri supports you with office design

As a professional partner for media and conference room technology, we have helped numerous different customers to equip their premises over the years. These include various industries and room types.

We are happy to support you with the technical equipment for your premises. In addition to the open-plan room, this also includes the conference room and other meeting rooms.

Ideally, we can combine the desired hardware with sound-absorbing measures to optimally equip your large room. Many of our customers are not even aware that the choice of audio technology has an important influence on room acoustics. Poor audio transmission can cause unpleasantly high frequencies in the ears of your employees or, in the worst case, even mean unclear communication with customers.

In large rooms in particular, you should attach importance to high-quality video conferencing systems in order to filter out the background noise that cannot be avoided despite all tips and tricks from the microphones during meetings. We will be happy to help you! Contact us today and we'll discuss everything else!