Meeting Room Acoustics
Make every voice clear in the room and on the call.
Consultant-designed acoustic panels that reduce echo, improve speech clarity and help conferencing technology perform at its best.
Meeting rooms | Boardrooms | Conference Rooms | Training Rooms
Clearer conversations and better video calls
Hard walls, glazing and meeting tables reflect speech around the room, making conversations tiring and causing microphones to capture too much reverberant sound.
Songbird wall and ceiling panels absorb these reflections, improving speech clarity for people in the room and online. Our acoustic consultants specify the right quantity and placement while ensuring the treatment complements the interior.
What better acoustics can achieve in meeting rooms
Improved Speech Clarity
Acoustic panels absorb excess sound, reducing echo and reverberation. This makes voices clearer and easier to understand, especially in rooms where multiple people are speaking.
Reduced Noise Distractions
Panels reduce reflected sound within the meeting room, helping attendees concentrate on conversations without being distracted by excessive echo.
More Focused Conversations
By reducing distracting reflections within the room, acoustic panels make conversations easier to follow and help attendees remain focused.
Comfortable Listening Environment
Reducing harsh sounds and echoes helps create a more pleasant acoustic atmosphere, which is less tiring for attendees during long meetings.
Professional Atmosphere
High-quality sound enhances the perception of professionalism in a conference room, reflecting positively on the company or organization.
Better Audio for Virtual Meetings
For hybrid or virtual meetings, acoustic panels help improve audio capture, giving conferencing microphones a cleaner speech signal and helping remote participants hear the conversation more clearly.
Take a look at our projects
MEETING ROOMS
Brand matched acoustic panels for a meeting room
BOARD ROOMS
MEETING ROOMS
What our clients say about us
Design, supply and install of acoustic panels for a mixed-use community hall.
“I just wanted to say thank you for everything you have done in terms of the acoustics at Kirkgate Community Centre, also Andy and his team were amazing. The place looks amazing.”
Nicole Williams – Kirkgate Community Centre
Supply and install acoustic panels for 5 Sports Halls.
“Thank you for the works provided over the summer period. It has been a seamless project and the new panels look great. “
Lauren Cassidy – Galliford Try
Design, supply and install acoustic panels for a multi-use school hall.
“We are very happy with the work and the difference is very noticeable.“
Anna Ellison – Weetwood School
Our Service from Start to Finish
Tell us about your space
Send us your floor plan or dimensions, photographs and a short video, and explain the acoustic problem.
Acoustic consultant review
Our acoustic consultants assess the layout, finishes and use of the space to determine what treatment is needed.
Treatment design & quotation
We recommend the right panels, quantities and locations, with a clear layout and quotation.
Supply and installation
Choose supply-only or nationwide installation, scheduled around your working hours where required.
Why choose Songbird for meeting rooms?
Consultant-led, not guesswork
We calculate the appropriate panel type, quantity and layout for your space.
Designed around your interior
Panels, rafts and baffles coordinated with your lighting, furniture and branding.
Supply-only or nationwide installation
Choose the service you need, with installation planned around working hours.
Clear, honest advice
We explain what acoustic panels will solve—and when source control, layout changes or sound insulation are also needed.
Ready for a better-sounding space?
Send us your room details and an acoustic consultant will recommend the appropriate panels, quantity and layout—with no obligation. Prefer to talk? Call 0113 322 7977 for expert advice.
How many acoustic panels does a meeting room need?
A typical 6 × 4 metre boardroom needs approximately 9 m² of Class A acoustic panelling, around eight 1200 × 1000 mm panels, to bring reverberation time from roughly 1.0 seconds down to 0.6 seconds. A four-person huddle room may need as little as 2 m². A 30-person conference room can need 60 m² or more.
Meeting rooms need less panelling than most people expect, because they are small. What makes them sound bad is not size but content. A boardroom holds a hard table, a screen, a whiteboard and a handful of chairs, which is far less soft material per cubic metre than an office of the same volume. The room also performs worst at the moment it matters most: a room designed for twelve absorbs noticeably less sound with three people sitting in it, which is exactly the situation in which the conferencing microphone is doing the most work.
The figures below assume hard finishes throughout: plasterboard walls and ceiling, carpet, a glazed partition, no suspended acoustic ceiling, room unoccupied. Panels are Class A to BS EN ISO 11654 (αw ≥ 0.90), calculated using the Sabine method against a 0.6 second target.
| Room | Typical size | Volume | Untreated RT60 | Class A panelling for 0.6 s | Approx. panels (1200 × 1000 mm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Huddle room (4 people) | 3 × 3 × 2.7 m | 24 m³ | ~0.8 s | ~2 m² | 2 |
| Small meeting room (6–8) | 5 × 4 × 2.7 m | 54 m³ | ~1.0 s | ~7 m² | 6 |
| Boardroom (10–12) | 6 × 4 × 2.7 m | 65 m³ | ~1.0 s | ~9 m² | 8 |
| Large boardroom (16–20) | 9 × 5 × 3.0 m | 135 m³ | ~1.25 s | ~24 m² | 20 |
| Conference room (30+) | 12 × 8 × 3.2 m | 307 m³ | ~1.55 s | ~63 m² | 53 |
If the room already has a suspended acoustic ceiling, the numbers change substantially. A standard Class C mineral fibre tile ceiling in a 6 × 4 metre boardroom will typically bring the room to around 0.5 seconds on its own, with no wall panelling needed to hit a reverberation target. A small amount is usually still worth fitting, to break up flutter echo between the parallel walls. A lower-performing Class D tile leaves the room at roughly 0.7 seconds and needs about 3 m².
These are planning figures, not a specification. Room shape, glazing area, ceiling construction and furniture all move the result, and rooms above roughly 100 m³ should be modelled rather than estimated.
Four things to consider for meeting rooms
Control early reflections
Treat facing side walls around seated head height, then the rear wall and ceiling above the table.
Check the existing ceiling
An acoustic tile ceiling can substantially reduce the extra panel area required.
Design for video calls
Reflected speech reaches the conferencing microphone as well as the people in the room.
Privacy needs a separate solution
Panels control reverberation. Overheard conversations through partitions and doors require sound insulation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Many meeting rooms benefit from a reverberation time of approximately 0.4–0.6 seconds, particularly where video conferencing is important. The appropriate target depends on the room volume, occupancy, finishes and conferencing system.
Treat the two facing side walls first, centred at around 1.2 metres, which is seated head height. That breaks the flutter echo path and controls the early reflections reaching the microphone. Then the rear wall opposite the display, then the ceiling above the table as a raft or baffles. Spreading panels across two or three surfaces works better than covering one wall completely.
No. Acoustic panels absorb sound inside a room. They do not block sound travelling through walls, doors or glazing. Overheard conversations are a sound insulation problem, usually caused by the partition, the door seals, or the gap above a suspended ceiling. NOVA Acoustics carries out UKAS-accredited sound insulation testing to identify the actual path before anything is specified.
Yes, measurably. Conferencing microphones pick up reflected sound alongside the direct voice, and acoustic echo cancellation degrades as reverberation rises. Bringing a room from around 1.0 seconds to 0.5 seconds gives the microphone a cleaner signal, so remote participants hear speech rather than room. This is usually the most noticeable change after treatment.
Often not, for reverberation alone. A Class C mineral fibre tile ceiling in a small boardroom will typically bring the room close to 0.5 seconds on its own. Wall panels are still worth fitting to break flutter echo between parallel walls and control early reflections reaching the microphone, but the quantity needed is much smaller.
Yes. Where glazing takes up one or two walls, the treatment moves to the ceiling, using acoustic rafts or baffles above the table, plus whatever solid wall area remains. A room glazed on three sides can still reach target reverberation times using ceiling treatment alone, though the panel area required is typically higher.
Yes. Songbird Skylark panels are made to order in a wide range of fabric colours and custom sizes, so panels can be matched to a brand palette or specified to line through with joinery and glazing modules. Where panel depth is restricted, for example beside a screen or behind a sliding door, the 12 mm and 24 mm Robin range gives the same finish in a slimmer profile.
A single meeting room is usually installed in half a day to a day by NOVA’s installation team. Most panel systems are mechanically fixed or bonded, with no wet trades and minimal dust, and work can be scheduled outside office hours where required. Self-adhesive Swift panels can be fitted in-house in an hour or two for smaller rooms.
Not for commercial meeting rooms. Building Regulations Approved Document E covers dwellings, and Building Bulletin 93 covers schools. For offices, BS 8233:2014 and the British Council for Offices Guide to Specification provide the recognised guidance, and BREEAM Hea 05 or WELL v2 apply acoustic criteria where a project is pursuing certification.
Shop the Songbird Acoustic Panel Range
Already know what you need? Explore our high-performance panels for direct UK delivery. If not, our acoustic consultants can recommend the right product, quantity and layout.
Sustainable, high performance acoustic treatment
Sustainable 40mm Polyester Fibre Acoustic Panel with Class A Sound Absorption made with >60% Recycled Material. Suitable for walls, ceilings, rafts or baffles.
Premium finishes and design-led interiors.
Simple, cost-effective self-installation.
40mm Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panel with Class A Sound Absorption. Self-adhesive for easy DIY Installation. Suitable for surface mounting to walls or ceilings.
Durable protection for high-impact areas.
