Sound Masking Systems

Why install a sound masking system?

- to increase the privacy of conversations, for example between doctor and patient - no-one else should be able to hear them

- to avoid uncomfortable situations, e.g. in a waiting room, where patients waiting in line hear sounds from the surgery (e.g. dentist), not only conversations but also moans of pain etc. have a negative impact on the well-being of patients, unfortunately often doors (and even walls) do not have adequate soundproofing

- to increase the comfort of employees - so that they do not hear distracting sounds (footsteps, telephone conversations, etc.)

How does sound masking work?

Sound masking systems use two phenomena related to hearing physiology:

- acoustic masking - sound at a higher level drowns out sounds at a lower level and of a similar frequency (or bandwidth), this phenomenon is also used in lossy sound compression (e.g. MP3)

- auditory adaptation - we can become accustomed to certain types of monotonous noise and ignore them (noise) - e.g. ventilation or air conditioning noise

Sound masking systems emit noise through loudspeakers with appropriately shaped characteristics (matched to the acoustic environment of the room) and at a suitable intensity.
A sound masking system can function as a public address system for background music and announcements - in clinics, outpatient clinics, etc. it can be used to call patients, provide information from queuing systems, broadcast music or children's stories or audio from TV sets.