Open-plan speech privacy planner
How far does a conversation carry?
On an open floor, privacy is a question of distance. This planner lets you stand a listener anywhere on a made-up office and watch a voice fade away, with and without a screen, in a quieter or busier room.
Included with Echo Studio at £149/mo. Figures are an indicative design guide only.
Worked example
01 · The talker
Someone speaks. The sound spreads out in every direction.
Each ring on the floor is speech getting weaker as it travels. Warm colours mean it still stands clear of the background. Cool teal means it is only just above it.
02 · Distance
Every doubling of distance takes the edge off.
Walk the listener away and watch the number change. The dark line on the floor marks where the modelled speech level falls to the level of the room's own noise. This simple model leaves out room reflections and sound bending round objects, so it does not show whether words can still be understood.
03 · Partitions
A screen in the right place changes the picture.
Put a screen between talker and listener and the shadow behind it shows up straight away. It only helps people in its lee, which is why where you put it matters as much as what it is.
04 · Background noise
A steadier background pulls that line in.
Raise the background level and the same voice drops under it sooner. Planners use this to decide whether a floor needs more quiet space, more screening, or more background sound.
Speech falls to background at, this direction
4.5 m
Illustration. Worked example with fixed example inputs (talker 58 dB at 1 m, screen worth 8 dB). An indicative design guide only, not a measurement of any real office.
Why it matters
Real floors are busy. Plans should say so.
A floor full of people is never silent, and that hum is what hides a conversation from the next desk. Planning for it early is far cheaper than discovering it after the fit-out.
What you get with Echo Studio
See where speech drops to the background level
A live map of your floor shows how far modelled speech reaches before it falls to the background level.
Compare layouts side by side
Try moving desks, adding screens or changing the background level, and see each option next to the others.
Work from your own numbers
Enter the talker and background levels you measured. Nothing is assumed on your behalf.
A distance you can compare
Each option comes back with one distance in metres where modelled speech falls to the background level, for comparing options. It is not a measure of confidentiality or of whether words can be understood.
Now try it with your own floor
Pricing
Included with Echo Studio, £149 a month.
Three-month minimum, then cancel any time. The planner sits alongside every other Studio tool. A one-room check is also available for £34.99. Echo Pro: ordering opens soon, once our professional indemnity insurance is in place.
How it works, and its limits
The planner uses the levels you give it, spreads speech out as it travels in open space, takes off the screen reduction you enter, and compares the result with your background level. The map is a free-field, line-of-sight picture. It ignores reflections from walls and ceilings, sound bending around screen edges, and how people actually speak. The worked example uses fixed example values, not measurements of any real office. Treat every figure as an indicative design guide for comparing options, not as a prediction of privacy or a statement of compliance. Where the question matters, measure on site.