Commercial Acoustics has worked with multiple Sheriff’s Offices to help solve their sound issues. In this case, the Sheriff’s Office in Orange County was experiencing a lack of speech privacy between adjacent interrogation rooms. In order to solve this issue, our team came out to do some tests and decided the best option would be installing a sound masking system in the sheriff’s office.
Sound Masking for Speech Privacy
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office had a number of sound complaints in their interior interrogation wing, when interviews were regularly interrupted due to poor sound attenuation between adjacent interview rooms and the corridor. At one point, two suspects in adjacent rooms were actually able to communicate with one another by just talking at a low volume, and could hear each other very clearly though the wall.
The lack of speech privacy between adjacent rooms also caused issue for those using the soft room. This is used for victims of sexual assault or other traumatic crimes to provide a more comforting atmosphere for interviewing, however it could not be used effectively when victims felt like they could be heard from outside of the room.
A light test was performed on each interview room along with the soft room to determine if the doors were air-tight. The sweeps, seals, and gaskets on the doors proved to be well-installed, minimizing flanking around the door area.
Walls did go to deck, but significant areas of penetrations allowed significant amount of sound to travel just around pipes and conduit. Acoustic caulk was used in these areas to plug the sound leaks.
Sound Masking System Installation
Per the client’s needs, the old ACT tile was in need of replacement. While often outside the scope of Commercial Acoustics’ soundproofing scope, our team was happy to replace the ACT rather than requiring the client to find a separate contractor.
Work was sequenced as follows:
- Old ACT removed from required areas.
- Sound Masking system installed per installation layout around the sheriff’s office. J-Hooks were fastened to the deck above, and speakers tuned and hung from them. Power and data cabling were run from speaker to speaker.
- New ACT was replaced in the required areas.
- Overall Sound Masking system was balanced and quality-checked for hot spots and compliance with sound masking spectrum and dBA levels.
If your office, library, or healthcare project has speech privacy or acoustic comfort needs, consider Commercial Acoustics’ sound masking systems to reduce distractions and improve tenant satisfaction.
