A sounds masking system emits low-level, non-distracting masking noise designed to reduce speech intelligibility and thereby improve speech privacy. This improvement in speech privacy can be of great value in open-plan offices, doctors' examination rooms and other environments where confidentiality is important.

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Sound masking can also reduce the distraction caused by traffic, office machinery and other unwanted sounds. Because this benefit is limited to situations where the unwanted sounds are of relatively low level, however, speech privacy is the focus of most sound masking systems.