Acoustics - why acoustics are so important

Peter is not stupid
– he just can’t hear nor understand what the teacher is saying.

When sound becomes noise, people get irritated and stressed. This is not only true in schools, but also in offices, hospitals, and other public buildings.

Many scientific and empirical studies describe the impact of poor acoustics:

• In schools, up to 70% of the consonants spoken by teachers cannot be heard by pupils.(1)
• In open plan offices, 60% of employees say that noise is the single most disturbing factor.(2)
• In offices, 70% of employees believed that their productivity would be higher if their environment was less noisy.(3)
• In offices, normal noise reduces the effectiveness in cognitive tests by 66% compared to the level in quiet surroundings. (3)
• Sales in a retail shop can increase by 5-10% as a rule of thumb through acoustic improvement measures.(3)
• In hospital environments, noise control is very important to the recovery of patients as “unwanted sound” can increase heart rate, blood pressure and respiration rate.(4)