Client: Create Partners Ltd
Type of works: supply of 374 acoustic points.

The acoustic environment of the Create Offices in Woodbridge was in need of improvement. The main issue appeared to be a high level of reverberation resulting in an unpleasant quality to the acoustics and elevated noise levels. Since this room involves communication via telephone a high level of speech intelligibility was required.

However, employees were constantly disturbed by the conversations of others, even on the far side of the office, and there was a very low level of speech privacy. It was therefore essential that the reverberation time was lowered and acoustic barriers put in place. A limited amount of absorption and diffusion was provided by the hard surfaces of the floors, ceiling and walls. In addition, the volume of the office was large, mainly as a result of the high sloping ceiling, which resulted in a long reverberation time.

Analysis of the reverberation times at each of six frequency bands was carried out. The reverberation times of the office with the original finishes indicated values that were significantly higher than were ideal. They indicated that 374 acoustic points were required to reach the recommended values.

Nicola Mitcham, Finance Manager Create Partners Ltd, said: ““When Acoustics at Work included sound absorbing panels onto the walls and desk divisions in our open plan office, the noise levels dropped (without becoming too quiet) and the deadlines and important phone calls were more manageable. They have achieved significant noise reduction without isolating everyone in their workspace and the pictures they printed onto the fabric of the acoustics wall panels add to the aesthetics of the office.”