Manchester Square, London

Global management consultancy firm

Increasing privacy levels in quiet, open plan areas, and cellular offices used by Partners and senior staff.

In 2008, this leading international consultancy firm took 43,000 sq ft of office space in the heart of London’s West End. The space is fitted out with a large number of cellular offices to cater for the business’s Partners and other senior staff members. An even greater number of meeting rooms, most with video and audio conferencing capabilities to facilitate global communication, also occupy the space. In addition, each floor also contains vast areas of open plan workstations for various business groups.

Acoustic Comfort were first engaged back in 2012 to assist with the ground floor open plan area. The noise floor of the building was exceptionally quiet (38dBA), due to the focus based work of the staff; interruptions were frequent and privacy levels poor. There were also a number of cellular offices and meeting rooms for which the client required increased privacy levels.

Treating the space with the LogiSon Acoustic Network enabled the client to closely control background noise levels. This increased privacy, reduced the risk of interruptions and allowed staff to concentrate. Such was the improvement, that the client rolled the treatment out across all 6 floors of the building, with an emphasis on the cellular offices belonging to the Partners.

Sound level tests: open plan areas

These example test results measure sound travelling across an open plan space.

  • For both tests, a person was positioned at the same desk.
  • Sound pressure measurements were taken at a distance of 12 metres from the desk.
  • For the first half of each test, there was no speech.
  • For the second half, the person at the desk spoke with a ‘telephone speaking’ voice.

Sound level tests: cellular offices

These example test results measure sound leaking from a closed meeting room into an open plan area.

  • For both tests, a person was positioned in the conference room with the door closed.
  • Sound pressure measurements were taken in the open plan area.
  • For the first half of each test, there was no speech.
  • For the second half, the person in the conference room spoke with a ‘presentation’ voice.

Client testimonial

Prior to the installation of the LogiSon sound masking system, unfortunately you could hear conversations from adjacent offices and meeting rooms quite easily. This was widely accepted as the norm until recently, when the Facilities team were tasked to solve the problem. We were pointed in the direction of Acoustic Comfort by an Acoustic Consultant and we were very impressed by their approach and the quality of the LogiSon system.

“It’s standard procedure for us to check the market when making a purchase and the decision was made to proceed with LogiSon as it was clearly the best system. We have a large number of Partners, so ensuring each individual office was treated independently was an important factor in the selection process.

Since the initial installation we have added the sound masking to every Partner office, meeting room and small open plan areas. We are delighted with the result.