Architectural Acoustics and Noise: Design of Offices to Enhance Speech Privacy and Work Performance

1:35 1pAAa1. Designing for speech privacy in offices. Kenneth P. Roy ~Armstrong World Industries, Innovation Ctr., 2500 Columbia Ave., Lancaster, PA 17603! Speech privacy is an important component of the building interior environment, as it affects the satisfaction and performance of the occupants and thus their productivity. Privacy, both in terms of the confidentiality of conversations and relative to distractions and annoyance, needs to be considered. Field measurements of interzone attenuation, S/N ratio, and privacy calculations will be presented for various open and closed office designs from evaluations in several buildings. Field sound measurement techniques, and electronic masking system design and tuning will be discussed.