They will make it less distracting, which is not quite the same thing. Panels absorb reflected sound, so speech stops carrying across the floor and the general build-up of noise drops. They do not reduce the sound a person makes at the desk next to you. The measurable change is in how far speech travels, not in how loud the nearest talker is.

Not on their own. Speech privacy in open plan needs three things working together: absorption to stop sound carrying, screens and layout to block direct paths, and sound masking to cover what is left. Panels do the first. A floor can hit a good distraction distance and still have conversations overheard, so if confidentiality is the brief, it needs designing rather than buying.

The ceiling first, because it is the largest uninterrupted surface and the one that reflects speech furthest across the floor. Then hard walls within about two metres of a desk run, treated at seated head height. Then screens between facing desks, and breakout or circulation zones where noise is generated. Ceiling treatment does most of the work in open plan.

Yes, using acoustic rafts or baffles suspended below the services. This is now the standard approach in fit-outs that leave the soffit exposed for chilled beams, ductwork or thermal mass. Rafts deliver the same absorption area as a closed ceiling while keeping the services visible and accessible, and they can be arranged to suit the lighting and sprinkler layout.

Distraction distance is how far speech travels before it stops being intelligible, measured under ISO 3382-3 and written as rD. For many open-plan office activities, a distraction distance of around 5 metres or less is a useful design objective. The appropriate target depends on how the space is used. Poor floors run to 10 metres or more, which is roughly the point at which a conversation two desk banks away pulls people out of focused work.

Only if they are tall enough. A screen has to break the line of sight between two seated people to interrupt the direct path of speech, which in practice means sitting above roughly 1.4 metres from floor level. Lower screens are visual dividers rather than acoustic ones. Screens also work best alongside ceiling absorption, not instead of it.

Carpet provides some absorption, particularly at higher frequencies, but it is rarely sufficient to control speech across an open-plan office on its own. The ceiling, screens and office layout normally have a much greater effect on how far conversations carry. The surfaces that determine how far speech travels are the ceiling and the walls, and in most offices both are hard. Carpet is worth having, but it is not treatment.

Finch for open plan ceilings, as rafts or baffles, with over 60% recycled content that supports BREEAM and WELL submissions. Skylark for feature walls and client-facing areas where colour matching matters. Robin where depth is tight, such as low soffits or panels behind desks. Swift for small cellular offices fitted in-house.

Wall panels usually can, zone by zone, with no wet trades and minimal dust. Ceiling rafts and baffles need access equipment over the work area, so those are normally installed out of hours or floor by floor. NOVA’s installation team plans the sequence around occupancy, and larger schemes are typically phased across evenings or weekends.

Ordinary administrative office noise is normally below the exposure action values in the Control of Noise at Work Regulations. Office acoustic quality is more commonly considered using guidance such as BS ISO 22955, BS 8233, the BCO Guide, BREEAM or WELL.