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Back in college, did you ever find yourself trying to study with a party going on a few doors down? If you did, then you know how hard it is to work in a noisy, distracting environment. Now bring that problem to an office setting. Office noise, it has been found, affects the productivity of employees. In a study by the Data Entry Management Association, poor office acoustics increased the errors made in data entries by as much as 27%. And noise levels in offices have increased over the past years. Cost-cutting leads to workstations being closer placed together than ever, so that there are more people making noise in a smaller area, and telecommunications has become vital to doing business, resulting in the distracting sounds of phones and fax machines. Because of these developments, there has been an increasing demand for sound masking. This practice didn't begin only recently. At the height of the Roman Empire, its wealthy citizens had fountains made indoors so that it would keep out the sound of the busy street outside. Have you ever tried to speak with a person in another room, while you were in the bathroom with the water faucet on? In essence, that is precisely the way that sound masking works. Sound - like people having a conversation, for example - carries on certain frequencies. By introducing a new, low-frequency, complementary sound, the conversation becomes harder to detect, and therefore is less distracting. How is this applied to your office? Well, there's the VoiceArrest system, which provides cutting-edge sound masking. A new sound is introduced to the environment, usually with speakers mounted in the ceiling tiles. These are placed in such a way as to provide a constant, uniform sound that doesn't distract the workers, but which will mask the overall noise level in your workplace. Not all offices are alike. Sound masking technicians will need to asses how to mask your office noise based on the size and shape of the room, which has an effect on acoustics, and on the usual activity that goes on in the work area, as certain offices are naturally more noisy than others. So try and consult a specialist. There are several companies out there that offer sound masking services. They can help you design your office in such a way as to ensure optimum acoustics, which will lead to greater productivity. They can also set up active masking systems for you, and make sure that your environment can help you work harder and focus better.