Offices

Quieting Office Environments

Concerns are on the rise that high noise levels in open office designs contribute to worker stress and lower productivity.

Acoustic Goal

Sound absorption is effective for lowering noise levels in offices, conference rooms and other office spaces.

When noise comes from adjoining rooms, noise-control solutions are needed instead of absorption.

Design Options

Wood and fabric finishes.

Product Attributes

Sound absorbing, impact-resistant (when close in proximity to people and things), and noise-blocking from room to room.

Fabric Finishes

Absorbers control echo and reverberation, lowering ambient noise levels in rooms for quieter and more productive workflow and interaction.

For areas that are in close proximity to office traffic, panels with impact-resistance will deter damage from occasional elbows, wheeled carts, or other impacts.

Hardside

Sound Absorber

Cost-effective absorber, efficient in 1" thicknesses for speech frequencies. Flush-mountable on gypsum-board ceilings and walls.

High Impact HardSide

Sound & Impact Absorber

Cost-effective, impact-resistant acoustical panels that resist mild to medium impacts.

Hi-Tack

Non-Acoustical Panel

Tackable panels for bulletin boards that blend visually with sound absorbing panels in cubicle, copy machine and other shared areas; do not absorb sound.

AcoustiGraphix®

Special Finish

Your artwork, corporate logo, picture, or message on acoustically transparent fabric. Compatible with any of these panels.

Reducing Noise and Increasing Productivity

Designers are focusing on reducing noise in open office spaces by adding quiet areas where individuals and teams can retreat and controlling noise between offices.

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Private offices are often overlooked as sources of noise. Place acoustical panels in the reflective path of workers’ voices to help lower reverberation levels everywhere.

Open Spaces

Taming noise levels in these spaces typically requires a multi-pronged strategy. Use absorptive cloud panels (if ACT isn’t present) and absorptive wall panels. Raise cubicle walls to help block direct sound paths. White noise generators can also be helpful for masking certain frequencies.

Hallways

Identify areas on walls where sound will reflect, place absorptive panels in direct and indirect sound paths, and include impact-resistant features where appropriate.

Lunchrooms

Hard, reflective surfaces can lead to boisterous environments, just when workers need a quiet break before tackling the rest of the day. Use absorptive wall and ceiling panels if ACT ceilings aren't present or effective enough.

Conference Rooms

Speech clarity can be compromised by noisy audio/video systems and loud voices. Aesthetically integrate absorptive surfaces on walls and ceilings to lower overall noise levels.

Wood Finishes

Wood surfaces typically reflect sound, resulting in a noisy work environment. Absorbers from the Acoustical Wood Collection reduce these reflections, creating quiet office spaces.

Customize the aesthetics with a choice of real wood veneers, hole patterns, matchings, cuts, finishes, and edges.

Alto

Sound Absorber

Linear-grooved patterns

Picado

Sound Absorber

Micro-perforated patterns

Sereno

Sound Absorber

Symmetrical hole patterns

What about noise between offices?

Cause

Office Ceilings

Normal acoustical ceiling tiles (ACT) are made for sound absorption, not noise control between rooms. When walls don’t extend to the deck, sound can easily pass to adjacent spaces.

Solution

QuietTile Noise Control Ceiling Tile

QuietTile transforms your specified ACT into the highest-rated CAC ceiling tiles in the industry. Select your preferred model and style of ACT, made into multi-layered tiles that fit into standard lay-in ceiling grids.

CAC - Ceiling Attenuation Class

Ceiling Attenuation Class (CAC) measures how much sound passes through a ceiling in one room, over a partition, and through the ceiling on the other side.

STC - Sound Transmission Class

Sound Transmission Class (STC) measures how much airborne sound passes through a partition (wall, ceiling, or floor). Kinetics has noise-control solutions for wall construction.