How Noise Reduction Racks Changed an Office: A Case Study
"the noise was unbearably loud"
Brandon Farr and his colleagues, Lennie, Steve and Sami, form the IT department of William Morris Sixth Form College, West London. As their IT and Comms equipment grew, so did the noise and heat implications, so much so, that 'the noise was unbearably loud' and had gone beyond health and safety regulations. The day had arrived when a solution had to be found.
Brandon tells us about the problem and the impact that this had upon everyday working life;
How did the noise from your IT equipment affect your working environment?
Our office dimensions are approximately five by three metres. Not only did this house the four of us, but also 17 Servers, 2 Switches, 2 UPS (3KVA), 2 KVMs, 2 Rack Consoles, 1 NAS, 1 Content Filtering Unit and 1 Google Search Appliance.
My desk was within 1 metre of the rack, and the noise was so loud that I couldn’t hold a conversation with colleagues who were only 2 metres away! On a typical day the noise would measure between 80 and 85 dB(A). During a hot day, not only did the temperature in the office become uncomfortable, but due to the demand on the cooling fans, the noise increased to levels in excess of 90 dB(A). In fact, the noise was such an issue, I seriously considered the long term effect upon my hearing. As a team, we all found it impossible to communicate effectively and had to arrange meetings off-site. As you can imagine this was both very time consuming and inconvenient.
What options did you consider to try and eliminate the problem?
Option 1. We looked at physically moving the equipment out of the office. This would have instantly removed the noise problem and would have allowed us to reclaim space, however this was going to be costly and disruptive. Also there weren’t any other rooms available for us to use in the college.
Option 2. Rather than move the equipment, we looked at moving the team, but as I said before there wasn’t anywhere else for us to go, and working remotely from the equipment wasn't ideal.
Option 3. We looked at isolating the equipment by using a dividing wall or an acoustic screen, both options proved to be costly and wouldn’t have guaranteed a suitable level of noise reduction. We were also concerned with how a change in the room’s layout would affect the airflow for cooling the rack mounted equipment.
The noise reduction rack was your final choice, why?
I had been speaking to one of our equipment providers and they recommended that I contacted Acousti Products because of their expertise in the area of noise reduction racks. With their help, we decided to opt for a quiet rack cabinet that would deal with the equipment noise and at the same time provide a sufficient level of cooling. Using a quiet cabinet also meant that we could optimise on space in the office and plan the room layout. We found another benefit was the mobility of the acoustic racks. This gave us the option to move the equipment to another room, should the need or opportunity arise in the future and as the quiet rack took up a relatively small space, it enabled us to utilise an additional quiet cabinet, with minimal impact upon the working environment. Out of all the options that were available to us, the sound proof cabinets also proved to be the most cost effective solution.
How did Acousti Products help you choose your quiet cabinets?
Acousti Products arranged a demonstration of all the leading quiet cabinets available from the leading manufacturers. This enabled me to assess the performance of each noise reduction cabinet. This was great, as I could hear and compare each product's capability and therefore make an objective choice. Acousti Products, also helped us overcome peripheral issues associated with this project, such as researching and supplying a means of weight distribution.
Soundproof cabinets have made a difference to your working day, how?
The performance of our soundproof cabinets have been above and beyond my expectations. Since the arrival of our new acoustic racks, things are very different in the office. We no longer have to raise our voices to communicate, or leave the room to discuss issues of importance. We can now hear each other, and the phone! Our working environment is far more enjoyable and fun, we are able to have team banter and be more productive. Ultimately, everything, as Lennie said, is "Oh, so much better!"
