Acoustic design is often considered a dark art, but it is surprisingly broad and spans several industries, and has been shown to significantly affect workers’ productivity and wellbeing. Effective acoustic design in workplaces is crucial for minimising distractions and enhancing productivity, especially in office-based environments.
Ros Lambert Porter, Managing Director of Hawkins Acoustics, presented at The Workplace Event highlighting the importance of acoustic design. In her talk How to Mute Your Coworker, Ros explored best practices to create an optimal acoustic environment. She began by reviewing the history of noise reduction techniques and key studies from the past century, highlighting the longstanding nature of this issue. Ros provided examples of the common workplace sounds, discussed when speech should be intelligible and presented modern solutions for achieving an optimal acoustic environment, including the four principles of managing sound; absorbing, blocking, covering and diffusing. She concluded by addressing common misconceptions about acoustics, including noise cancellation and sound absorption, together with statistics on why optimal acoustic environments are needed to improve productivity and workplace satisfaction.
Ros is an acoustics consultant with degrees in both Audiology and Acoustics. Her consulting experience spans the United Kingdom, Africa and Australia, covering various sectors from vibration monitoring in mining and creation of hearing conservation programmes, through to environmental noise impact and acoustics design for schools. Her particular interest, is workplace acoustics with a focus on the impact of noise on wellbeing. Ros leads a team of acoustic consultants offering a range of acoustics and vibration services including design, simulation, modelling, noise mapping, assessment, and testing.
If you would like Ros, or any of our other acoustic consultants to present or help your organisation with an acoustics related issue or design, please contact us.
