Accudata Systems is a Houston-based consulting and integration firm with 36 years of experience providing highimpact IT infrastructure services and integrated solutions. Having outgrown their old space, Accudata’s management sought to create an updated office environment. Occupying the 6th floor of a new building, this new office was designed to promote collaboration, with plenty of modern features and natural light. Designed to accommodate 75-100 full time employees, mobile workers, and visitors, the office square footage is spread across open offices, private offices, touchdown areas, and conference rooms. Many of the employees in the open plan areas regularly participate in customer service, tech support, sales, and conference calls.
While providing more options for architectural and design considerations, the new open office space had fewer walls to block sound, meaning speech privacy would be compromised and noise distractions elevated. Noise distraction issues in the new space became apparent shortly after move-in, particularly speech transmission from private offices to neighboring private offices and conference rooms and vice versa. Speech noise traveled down the long corridor as well. Accudata’s previous office had limited sound masking, so the company’s executives realized its importance for protecting speech privacy. The firm’s executives entrusted Client Services Manager Matt Johnson with finding the right sound masking vendor and installer.
SOLUTION
Sound masking is the process of adding low level, unobtrusive background sound to an environment to cover up speech noise and improve the overall office ambience. Similar to the sound of airflow, this sound is specifically engineered to cover up human speech, making affected environments more comfortable, private, and free of excess noise distractions.
After carefully evaluating the options, Johnson chose QtPro™ sound masking solutions from Biamp for their installation. The experts at Biamp connected Johnson with Fitt Telecom, a Houston-area integration partner. Fitt provided Johnson and the Accudata executive team an on-site demo at a nearby financial firm where QtPro™ was installed. Due to similarities in their office layouts, Accudata left the demo convinced QtPro™ was the right solution for their workspace.
Fitt installed small, barely visible Qt® Emitters (loudspeakers) in Accudata’s open and drop ceiling areas, which were then connected by cables to a Qt® 600 control module residing in the server room. The long corridor was equipped with stylish pendant mount emitter housings to complement the unique architectural aesthetics of this space. The system’s ability to provide alternate masking volume levels across different zones allowed Accudata to more proactively address noise distractions in the open office areas. Automatic ramping was also programmed into the system, allowing masking noise to be slightly louder at times when the office is busiest.
CONCLUSION
The new Accudata office is now more functional, productive, and acoustically comfortable, and employees are pleased with the office’s transformation. “We had sound masking in our old office, but the system is much more advanced and effective,” says Johnson. “Employees had a chance to experience the office before and after the system was installed and the difference is really apparent — the office feels much quieter and comfortable now. QtPro™ works as advertised.”