Acoustical Ceiling Tiles
Back when I was in high school, we used to use a pretty primitive approach to controlling sound. Basically, when I wanted to practice with my garage band, we would simply put up foam egg crate. If we had a couple extra mattresses sitting around, we would throw those up against the wall as well. It was messy and ugly looking, but it worked. Best of all, it was cheap ñ something that was pretty important to us back then. I wasn't aware of acoustical ceiling tiles, and if I had been I probably wouldn't have used them. I didn't really have permission to modify the veiling, so egg crate was just fine for me.
Working as a manager recently, however, I had to come up with a more sophisticated approach to sound control systems. You see, as we have modernized our office, sound has become a bigger and bigger problem. Using cubicles instead of normal offices may save floor space and make for a more collaborative work environment, but it also creates a lot of noise. If you don't have acoustical ceiling tiles, a drop ceiling, or some other sort of sound management system, it can get overwhelming to work in. There is so much background noise and hubbub that no one can concentrate on what they are doing.
I had assumed that it would be as easy as going down to the store and picking up a set of acoustical ceiling tiles to install, but it turned out to be much more complicated. There are many different kinds of acoustic ceiling tiles out there, and they all have slightly different effects. You see, controlling sound isn't as simple as dampening it. A modern office place with dividers instead of walls will have extremely complex acoustics. Sound baffles, a drop ceiling, and acoustical ceiling tiles will all have different effects on the sound. Choosing the right one to get just the right effect is no easy task.
Ideally, we would have hired a sound engineer to do the work, but it wasn't in the budget. It fell to me to make all acoustical ceiling tile decisions, so I did the best I could. I used standard edition one's which only moderately dampened the sound. I figured that taking everything down a few decibels would be enough. If that wasn't enough, I could have added sound baffles or other obstacles later on. As it turned out, the approach works very well. There is still a little bit of a low background murmur, but it is much more manageable than before. It has become a much more pleasant place to work in thanks largely to the acoustical ceiling tiles. Best of all, an acoustic ceiling is fairly reasonable to install, saving money for other projects.
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