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A Valuable Investment |
"I am a big fan of the sound masking system CCR ASSOCIATES installed for us. With 15-foot ceilings and a space that's 100,000 square feet, with 450 employees on the floor, you know noise level is a great concern. I am still impressed with the fact that you never hear even a small amount of noise distraction. This system has been extremely effective and was well worth the investment." — Lynne Dean (Bank of America Call Center)
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Building Business and Strategic Alliances |
"Every time we work with Charles Roy and his associates, it's been very successful," says Bob Gulomb. "I'm so happy with their work I want them to help in the planning of a new building so we can avoid potential problems."
Bob Gulomb, a Manager of Facilities Engineering with Bayer, called CCR ASSOCIATES LLC to help with an acoustical problem that had developed in the interior space of a new building that Bayer had moved into a year earlier. Gulomb was concerned about the noise level in the open plan office space occupied by a group of 125 people.
"People talking in the work area combined with the computer keyboards, got worse and worse until you couldn't focus anymore," says Gulomb. "It was like a slot machine drone." CCR's analysis was that the sounds were hitting the glass walls of the outer offices and bouncing them back into the open office space, even when the doors were closed.
"CCR installed an electric sound masking system to help cover up the background noises of speech and office machinery," says Gulomb, who turned to CCR again to solve another problem: the deafening noise in a conference room and the office space beneath it. This time CCR brought in staff engineering consultant, Bonnie Schnitta, Ph.D., whose specialty is in vibration and noise control.
"The problem at Bayer was a very common one that many people don't realize can be solved," Schnitta says, noting that the culprit was a noisy HVAC system which made it impossible to understand speech within the conference room.
"When the equipment noise is transferred into the ductwork, it becomes an acoustical channel," explains Schnitta. "It's a closed reflective environment." So Schnitta turned off the switch operating the HVAC system, the noise stopped, and everyone in the room applauded.
Schnitta had verified the cause but now had to incorporate a solution to what were essentially two problems. First, the noise in the conference room had to be deadened; second, the noise in the office below, caused by the duct system in the ceiling, was so loud no one would work in it. The solution came in two parts.
First the HVAC duct was wrapped in special material to deaden the noise. Then the ceiling tiles were replaced with special tiles that had a higher-grade absorptive quality on the side facing the office and a high STC (noise stopping material) rated material on the side facing the duct.
The result? The noise in that office is now lower than the noise in the open office area outside it.
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"Silence is Golden" |
Larry Post, Facility Director for Cartus (formerly Cendant Mobility), had a problem. He needed to convert an office floor space containing six-foot high fabric-paneled workstations that provided a high degree of privacy to an open plan. This was for senior management and privacy was an issue. The open plan would provide office space for 500 people but the panels would be glass rather than fabric and only three feet high. Acoustics were a major issue because privacy was demanded for lengthy phone conversations.
"I called Charlie Roy, at CCR ASSOCIATES, who provided a sound masking system so good it made the distraction from employee conversations a non-issue," says Post enthusiastically. "CCR ASSOCIATES has been very responsive to all our needs, even coming in after the install to iron out any remaining quirks. They're always quick to come out and help."
Post explains that his building has two sections - the new addition with the open workspaces and the old section with high paneled workspaces. Initially everyone resisted placement in the new section. How successful is the sound masking?
"There are no complaints or concerns from people going from the old to the new [work environments] and I don't receive calls from any of our employees that they are concerned with excessive noise levels in their work areas," says Post, happily.
"I go by customer satisfaction and the results speak for themselves. We look at complaints. If there aren't any, it's a real plus!"
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Customer Satisfaction: Long-term relationships |
Kimberly Hoover is a staff architect with Parson's I&T and IBM, who turned to CCR ASSOCIATES for help with acoustical design. IBM was planning to change over from a fixed wall environment to an open plan office landscape and had legitimate concerns about acoustical issues. An integrated strategy of masking, ceilings, and furniture systems were examined and the resulting acoustical interventions elicited the following response:
"I wanted to tell you how well the sound masking system your company designed and implemented is working. It's amazing how, with 150 people in this space, it never seems like there are more than about five people in the area. Even the people who recently moved into the space are rather impressed with the system, as one of their initial concerns was 'people noise'. I also like how simple the system is to adjust and maintain. Thanks so much for all your help."
Out of Sight but Not Out of Mind
Invisibility is the key to the great relationship between Charlie Roy and Remesh K. Metha, IBM Senior Program Manager, IBM Real Estate Services, Chicago.
When they're working on a project, Metha says the CCR team is unobtrusive. "They work at night and stay out of everyone's way! Charlie Roy and his team from CCR ASSOCIATES are active, aggressive and responsive to our needs, I think they're very good."
Metha heard about CCR ASSOCIATES through another consultant and hired Charles to put in a sound masking system on several floors in a then incomplete project. He was receiving a lot of complaints about the noise distractions from workers who had been moved into that open workspace environment.
For Metha the bottom line is that there are no longer any complaints coming from workers in areas where the sound masking solutions are installed.