PREDICTION OF SPEECH TRANSMISSION INDEX IN OPEN-PLAN OFFICES

According to questionnaire studies, speech is the most annoying sound source in open-plan offices [1]. The most distracting speech comes from the nearest workstations. Therefore, speech privacy between workstations should be as high as possible, that is, the speech transmission index, STI, should be low. This presupposes that the speech is properly attenuated, e.g. using absorbents, screens, and masked by using sufficient but not annoying background noise. Also the mutual distances and orientations of the workers are important.