Coronavirus lockdown: Former Stamford School pupil devises noise-blocking screen to help people working and studying from home
A young entrepreneur has devised a device to block out the sound of family members and pets while working from home.
Tom Charsley-Evans, 19, came up with the idea for the sound screen while struggling to study at his Rutland home under lockdown.
Backed by dad Peter, who runs his own business setting up business lounges in airports and conference centres, he sourced material from an Australian acoustics manufacturer.
And now the former Stamford School pupil has around 60 orders from as far afield as Los Angeles and Italy.
“We wanted to design a product which could screen out distractions and noise to help people to work and concentrate more effectively,” said Tom, who is now working part-time at Amazon. “This does the job perfectly.”
He had cut short his gap year in Australia due to the pandemic and was trying to continue his studies at home in Barrowden.
Peter said: “I was in the study and Tom was working on the kitchen table and all the noise from the animals and people was coming through. That’s when he came up with the notion of the divider.”
The three parts of the product, called an Acoustic Desk Divider, clip together to make a tabletop cubicle which is said to cancel out half of all ambient noise.
“It has a psychological effect as well,” said Peter. “It cuts out a lot of the noise but it also creates a sense of privacy.”
They cost £99 for a 910mm wide version and £115 for the 1,100mm model.
Tom is off to university in Newcastle in September to study marketing and management but will continue to run his new business. He is currently developing a website.
Peter said the divider will be useful for all home-workers, including school pupils and students, as the world changes in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.
He added: “We’re confident this will take off. Working from home is going to be here for a long time for a lot of people. A lot of people aren’t going to want to go back and companies are recognising this. This is going to change the way we live.”
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