Abstract

Design of sound insulation in office meeting rooms is typically based on ‘normal’ speech levels, but anecdotal evidence suggests that raised speech levels may be common where video/teleconferencing (VC/TC) is in use. If this is the case, then partitions in meeting rooms may be under-designed. In order to gain an understanding of the real-world occupational noise levels that exist in VC/TC  enabled meeting rooms, long-term noise monitoring was conducted in multiple offices across the globe and matched to records of VC/TC use. Correlations uncovered include a link between VC/TC use and increased Lp, and higher speech Lw in larger meeting rooms.