The French standard on open-space acoustics taken up by ISO

Eleven member countries of ISO/TC 43/SC1 “Noise” – Australia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Iran, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States – have agreed to include in their work programme a new subject on the acoustics of open office spaces, based on the first standard on this subject, which is French.

This subject had undergone standardization work at the French level based on the documents produced by the Occupational Injuries Branch, leading to the publication in March 2016 of the first French standard on open-space acoustics (NF S31-199) “Acoustics – The acoustic performance of open office spaces”. Last May, the AFNOR/S30D Committee on “Acoustics in workplaces” proposed that this standard should be taken up in ISO/TC 43 /SC1, i.e. at the international level.

Accordingly, a working group, whose secretariat will be administered by AFNOR, will be set up very soon in ISO/TC 43/SC1. Their first meeting is expected to be held on 13 and 14 December 2017 at AFNOR (France).