Echo in offices and meeting rooms: the felt panel solution
In open-plan offices and meeting rooms, echo makes focus and communication harder. How felt ceiling panels improve acoustic comfort.
Glass partitions, exposed concrete and open-plan layouts are common in modern offices. They make spaces feel open but bring acoustic challenges: sound reflects, conversations carry further and it becomes harder to follow what is said in meetings.
Acoustics in open-plan offices
In an open-plan office, the goal is not complete silence but reducing how far conversations carry. As a continuous surface above everyone, the ceiling plays a large role in reflection. Felt panels on the ceiling absorb sound, reduce reflections and help ease disturbance between work areas.
When planning, consider:
- giving priority to the area above busy workstations,
- treating meeting and phone areas separately,
- coordinating the layout with lighting and ventilation elements.
Acoustics in meeting rooms
Meeting rooms are usually small with hard surfaces: glass walls, tables and screens all reflect sound. These reflections reduce speech clarity, especially in calls with remote participants. Felt panels on the ceiling reduce reflections and help create a clearer sound environment.
Felt and design
Felt panels are not only functional; with colour and form options, they can become part of the office's design language. Corporate colours, different tones per zone or a calm, neutral look are all possible. For options, read choosing a felt ceiling.
Measurement and calculation
Every office has different acoustic needs. Target values are set by a project-specific calculation based on volume, number of users and other surfaces, and the quantity and layout of felt panels should follow it.
Summary
A felt ceiling is an effective way to create an acoustic environment that supports focus and communication. For the general features, read what is a felt ceiling, and for your office you can request a site survey.