Measurement of speech privacy of closed rooms using the American Society for Testing and Materials ASTM E2638.

The degree of speech privacy between various locations in buildings has been of increasing concern, driven in part by legislative requirements and the desire for increased security. Until recently, ASTM E1130 “Standard Test Method for Objective Measurement of Speech Privacy in Open Plan Spaces Using Articulation Index” has been the only standardized measurement method available. This test method is, for a variety of reasons, not suitable for assessing speech privacy of closed rooms or conditions of very high‐speech privacy. These issues are, however, addressed by the new ASTM E2638 “Standard Test Method for Objective Measurement of the Speech Privacy Provided by a Closed Room.” ASTM E2638 describes a test method suitable for enclosed rooms of nearly all sizes and defines a measure called speech privacy class that can be used to accurately rate speech privacy over a very broad range, from no privacy to very high secrecy. The new E2638 measurement method will be described, and measurements in several real r...