ABSTRACT
Offices, open spaces, and restaurants acoustics mainly revolve around the same concern: enabling the user to perform a task while avoiding him or her being unduly bothered by the noise generated around. This may require the possibility of holding normal voice discussions within small groups while avoiding too much interference with similar groups or individuals. Of course, under such conditions some speech will be understandable, especially when the background noise level is not too high, and it is up to the acoustician-according to the client’s wishes-to decide how much of it should be permitted to be understood. This actually sets the tone of the problem: intelligibility between tables, be they workstations or a restaurant.
