Good speech intelligibility is of the utmost importance, and not only in conference or reception rooms. This is becoming increasingly important especially in open-plan offices. Modern architecture focuses on simple furniture and large sound-reflecting surfaces, such as tiled floors, glass facades and exposed concrete walls. In this way, the intelligibility of speech is relegated to the background. The consequence is that a conversation or even a discussion with several participants or as part of the daily office routine becomes almost impossible in these rooms, because intelligibility suffers greatly from the existing room acoustics. Speech intelligibility can be optimised with the help of simple measures such as wall absorbers, ceiling absorbers or office noise barriers, even in modern offices.
