Reduce echo in home office (fast)
To reduce echo in a home office, you need to add more absorbent materials. Echo, or reverberation, occurs when there are too many hard, reflective surfaces. Just as light can be reflected off smooth surfaces, sound can be reflected off hard surfaces back into the room. When you are in a Teams meeting, the last thing you need is to sound unprofessional or be difficult to hear.
Luckily, treating the acoustics of your room is easier than soundproofing it (and cheaper!). If you haven’t got a carpet in your home office, then this will be one of your biggest problems, but worry not, you don’t have to get one. Acoustic panels can be fixed to ceilings and walls and these will reduce the reverberation rate inside your room. Let’s see how you can do this.
How many acoustic panels does a home office need?
Your home office will need enough acoustic panels to cover roughly a third of all surfaces. This will depend on how many surfaces are already covered (carpet being the big one), but covering around a third is a good rule of thumb. Also, take a look at where you sit, is your desk opposite a wall? If so, your voice is bouncing directly off that wall and out into the room. Treating the surface directly opposite you is going to have a big effect on the acoustics. Sound is usually best treated directly at the source, so if you are opposite a wall, treat this one first.
You can see a great example of this, in our review video. See how Beth, a voice-over artist, treats only the walls around her desk and achieves great sound attenuation.
What are the best acoustic panels for a home office?
The best acoustic panels for a home office will have a Class A absorbency rating with an absorbency coefficient as close to 1 as possible. All of our acoustic panels have a Class A rating and are well suited to home office environments. We would suggest using the Still Note, which has been designed as a high-performance panel that is budget-friendly. The simple finish also means your walls won’t look too different!
The Still Note also comes in a variety of sizes, so you can easily find one to suit your space.
Why is my home office echoing?
Your home office is echoing because there are too many exposed reflective surfaces. This means that sound is bouncing from wall to wall and reducing the clarity of your speech which can negatively impact your meetings. This can be resolved by introducing more soft materials to the space. For some people, this starts with carpet, curtains, and furniture. However, if this isn’t for you, or has already been done, you need acoustic panels.
Acoustic panels don’t have to be expensive or disrupt how a space looks. They can be installed onto ceilings, where you will hardly even notice them! The great thing is, they are really easy to put up and have an immediate effect. The Still Note acoustic panels are the best option for home offices as they are a Class A rated product, light weight, and can be adhered to a wall – no screws or hammers needed!
What is an absorbency rating on a panel?
The absorbency rating on an acoustic panel tells you by how much it will reduce reverberation (echo). Class A is the highest-rated material and will provide the most reduction per m2. We recommend using a Class A material wherever possible and only stock these materials ourselves. The absorbency ratings are awarded by ISO, so the standards are consistent across the board.
Does noise absorption make a room quieter?
Noise absorption makes a room quieter by reducing the reverberation, however, it does not stop sound from entering or leaving the room, like soundproofing. Absorbent materials only make the room quieter by reducing the amount of sound waves bouncing around a space. In short, it can control the noise created in space from repeating itself, which would result in more sound at once and a louder space. However, the room itself is not made quieter as it would if it was soundproofed from external noises as well.
