Two separate acoustic problems
Reverberation is the persistence of sound within a room after the source has stopped. It occurs when sound bounces off hard, reflective surfaces — bare walls, hardwood floors, uncovered windows, and ceilings. A room with high reverberation time makes speech harder to understand and microphones pick up a noticeable echo quality.
Noise intrusion is sound from outside the room entering the workspace — street traffic, neighbours, building HVAC systems, or construction. It arrives through gaps in the building envelope, through windows, walls, floors, and ceilings. This requires a different set of interventions than reverberation treatment.
The distinction matters for video calls: Reverberation affects how your voice sounds on the other end. External noise intrusion affects what you hear. Both are worsened by common residential construction materials and layouts.
Canadian construction context
Residential construction in Canada varies considerably by age and region. Post-2000 construction, particularly in urban high-rise condominiums in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary, often uses concrete and glass extensively — both highly reflective surfaces acoustically. Pre-war residential housing in Montreal and older sections of other cities typically features plaster walls and wood floors that have more inherent absorption than drywall over stud, but weaker flanking paths for sound transmission.
Canadian National Building Code requirements address structural sound transmission between units in multi-unit residential buildings, but individual rooms within a unit have no code-mandated acoustic treatment. The practical result is that most residential home offices have significantly more reverberation than an office designed for focused work.
Reducing reverberation
Absorption is the primary tool for reducing room reverberation. Soft, porous materials absorb acoustic energy that would otherwise reflect. Common options in residential settings include:
- Rugs and carpets: A large rug covering the majority of the floor area is the single most impactful acoustic change available in most rooms. Bare hardwood or laminate flooring — very common in Canadian urban apartments — reflects sound efficiently. A thick pile rug introduces significant absorption, particularly in the mid and high frequency ranges where speech intelligibility is concentrated.
- Upholstered furniture: Sofas, chairs, and padded headboards absorb sound and break up flat reflective surfaces. In dedicated office rooms without these items, absorption panels serve the same purpose.
- Curtains and drapes: Heavy floor-length curtains provide both acoustic absorption and some noise barrier effect. Lined or blackout curtains outperform sheer curtains in both regards. This is a particularly useful option for rooms with large windows — common in newer Canadian construction.
- Acoustic wall panels: Fabric-wrapped panels filled with mineral wool or acoustic foam are available from building supply stores and specialty acoustic retailers. They can be mounted on walls as functional objects rather than prominent additions. Panels between 50 mm and 100 mm thick, placed at primary reflection points (the wall beside and behind the monitor, and behind the speaker), produce disproportionate improvement relative to their coverage area.
Panel placement priorities
The first reflection point on the side walls — the point at which sound from the speaker reaches the wall and reflects to the listening position — is the highest priority for panel placement. In a home office with a desk facing a wall, this is typically the wall to the left and right of the monitor, at approximately ear height.
The wall directly behind the speaker (the person on the call), visible to the camera, is the second priority. Panels here also improve the visual backdrop for video calls, a secondary but practical consideration.
Managing external noise
External noise requires addressing the building envelope rather than the room interior. Unlike reverberation treatment, noise isolation involves adding mass and sealing gaps — not adding absorption.
Window treatment
Windows are the weakest point in the noise barrier for most Canadian residential rooms. Single-pane windows, still found in older housing, provide substantially less isolation than double or triple-pane units. Secondary window inserts — acrylic or glass panels that fit inside the existing window frame — add a second air gap without replacing the existing window. These are available from several Canadian suppliers and can be removed seasonally.
For renters who cannot modify windows, acoustic curtains with mass-loaded vinyl backing reduce transmitted sound somewhat, though not as effectively as adding a second pane.
HVAC noise
Forced-air heating systems — standard in most Canadian houses and many apartment buildings — produce background noise at registers and return air grilles. The noise level depends on duct sizing, fan speed, and register placement relative to the workspace.
Closing the nearest supply register partially reduces airflow noise in the room, at the cost of some heating or cooling capacity. In well-insulated modern homes, this tradeoff is acceptable for short periods. Duct silencers — insulated flex sections installed in ductwork near the register — are a more permanent solution but require access to the duct system.
In colder months, many Canadian remote workers run electric space heaters as a supplemental heat source, which allows the forced-air system to run at lower fan speed. Modern ceramic space heaters are quiet in operation compared to older resistive coil models.
Microphone placement and selection
Microphone placement affects how room acoustics are captured. A directional cardioid microphone placed close to the speaker (15–30 cm) captures primarily direct sound and minimises room pickup. An omnidirectional microphone or laptop internal microphone at desk distance captures the room as prominently as the speaker.
For remote workers who participate in frequent audio or video calls, a USB cardioid microphone positioned close to the face — on an adjustable arm — produces notably better audio quality than a laptop microphone in a reverberant room, regardless of how much room treatment has been applied.
Noise-cancelling microphone processing available in meeting software (including many videoconferencing tools) suppresses steady background noise such as HVAC hum but does not address reverberation or echo. Both require physical room treatment or microphone positioning to resolve.
Considerations for renters
A significant proportion of remote workers in Canadian urban centres rent rather than own their homes. This limits available acoustic interventions — permanent wall mounting and window modifications require landlord approval and must typically be reversed on vacating.
Freestanding acoustic panels on easel stands avoid wall mounting entirely. Large bookshelves filled with books — a common piece of furniture in home offices regardless — provide moderate diffusion and some absorption. Furniture placement to break up parallel wall surfaces reduces flutter echo without any modification to the space.