As office spaces begin to reopen, sound is being used as an antidote to anxiety of indoor spaces engendered by coronavirus restrictions. K-array recently explored some sound solutions when UK distributor 2BHeard teamed up with Moodsonic on a soundscape a project at the London offices of tech company Vaimo.
Moodsonic is a new technology that brings intelligent nature sound into workspaces, hospitality and healthcare environments. At its core are the principles of biophilia – ‘an innate and genetically determined affinity of human beings with the natural world’ – which explains why, for example, humans have positive responses to natural light and why light deprivation causes harm.
Walking through the welcome corridor at Vaimo’s building, visitors are greeted by a gentle wash of birdsong. ‘Would you believe, we spend around 90 per cent of our lives indoors? Asks Moodsonic MD Evan Benway. ‘These buildings have a huge impact on our quality of life and it’s so important – particularly now – that they’re designed for wellbeing.’
This particular audio environment – or soundscape – is based on a journey through a remote, nature-filled Australian island. The source of the sounds is almost undetectable – K-array speakers mounted high in the ceiling and integrated into metal trusses among the columns. These include 16 Lyzard-KZ14, four Truffle-KTR25 and four Kommander-KA02.
‘Our sense of hearing has primordial roots,’ Benway explains. ’It evolved to pick up on dynamic sounds around us, alert us to threats, and to aid communication. We’re hardwired to pay attention to it, which makes [noise] one of the most common complaints about office buildings, hospitals, hotels – nearly all of our buildings.’
Other people’s conversations become more of a problem in quieter Covid-era offices. Without a steady background hubbub, they’re extra distracting. ‘There was a real sense of unease when people began using the space again,’ says Vaimo’s Stephen Hill, who manages the office. ’It lacked warmth and I could hear conversations word-for-word from the other side of the room. It was really uncomfortable.’
This led Moodsonic to create a category of soundscapes specifically engineered to make nearby speech less intelligible, and therefore less distracting.
‘We pay special attention to the sonic frequencies in which our consonant sounds are articulated,’ says Benway. ‘If I speak to you but leave out most of the vowel sounds – similar to what happens when we whisper – you can still understand everything I say. By introducing naturally occurring sounds with the right amount of energy in these critical frequency bands, we can disrupt those consonant sounds, turning the speech into an incomprehensible babble, easy enough to ignore.’
This is where STI testing comes in – Speech Transmission Index – technology commonly used to measure the clarity of PA systems or concert halls. Researchers have in recent years turned the methodology on its head: ‘In a concert hall, you want to hear a pin dropped on stage from the back row,’ explains Antonio Nardi, an engineer from Moodsonic. ‘Here, our target is the opposite. We want to decrease the intelligibility of speech – make it less disruptive.’
Moodsonic’s technology uses an algorithmic approach to making sound, made famous by Brian Eno. It creates a fresh stream of sound that can react to your live environment. ‘If you were working a late shift and there was no-one else here, the system could introduce sounds to help you feel safer,’ Benway says. ’Or, if someone suddenly started speaking loudly, a layer of sound designed to mask their speech would increase in affected areas, while dropping in the vicinity of the talker, subconsciously encouraging them to lower their voice.’
Moodsonic can react to any kind of data – like occupancy, temperature, time of day, or weather. ‘People really appreciate it,’ Hill reports. ‘We’re putting all our efforts into staff wellbeing and sound has been such a huge part of that. Moodsonic combined with K-array has made our office feel like anything but an office. Now it’s a place we enjoy spending time in.’
