Round2 Messages: 108 Registered: September 2013 Location: Canada
Viscount
I work in a medical office and we usually have a lot of people sitting in the waiting room so we set up a large screen television. The acoustics in the waiting room are great but the problem is the reception area off of the waiting room. There are three reception desks facing the door. When the television is on and people are talking it is difficult for receptionists to hear incoming phone conversations. It is like the noise surrounds the reception area as well. Much as I love big screen televisions, I think by making our patients happy we created a problem for ourselves.
audioaudio90 Messages: 623 Registered: October 2010
Illuminati (1st Degree)
Perhaps you should turn the volume down or even mute the TV, putting close captions on. Alternatively, you could hook the TV up to some directional speakers and see if that helps a bit. It also sounds like you may need some more sound muffling in general; does the room have carpet?
Fannie Messages: 15 Registered: September 2013 Location: Alabama
Chancellor
I also work in a medical office. We keep our TV muted and use closed caption because there are times the noise will bother a patient. This may be a good solution for your office.
SoundGuy Messages: 5 Registered: December 2013 Location: USA
Esquire
Closed captioning is definitely the way to go here. As a patient sitting in a waiting room I simply want a distraction, not necessarily to catch up on the news. Turning down the volume and turning on CC kills two proverbial birds with one stone.
For office's where the waiting room and reception area are one in the same, closed captioning is the best way to go. Most of the one's I've been in though, those two have always been in separate areas.
I would just keep the volume turned down and keep the remote control at the desk. Is there anywhere else where the TV could go so the receptionists would be able to hear phone calls better?