You book the meeting room for a client call, and within minutes everyone is repeating themselves. Glass walls, a hard floor, a bare table and painted plasterboard throw every word back into the room, and the call microphone picks up all of it. The good news is that you can reduce echo in a meeting room with furniture and wall finishes, without building anything.
This guide explains why meeting rooms echo and where panels, screens and soft seating do the most good, with six products and their stated specs. If bare walls are the main problem, start with our acoustic wall panels.
Why meeting rooms echo
What most people call echo in a small room is reverberation: sound reflecting off hard surfaces after the speaker has moved on. Glass, plasterboard, concrete, timber floors and a large table top all reflect well, so words overlap and speech blurs.
Meeting rooms are often small, boxy and hard-finished, with a glass wall for light, and facing walls bounce sound back and forth. On a video call, the microphone hears the reflections as well as the voice.
The fix is to add surfaces that absorb sound instead of reflecting it. Many acoustic products state an NRC figure. NRC rates how much sound a surface absorbs, from 0 for none to 1 for nearly all. Where you put the material matters as much as what you buy.
Acoustic wall panels: where to place them to reduce echo
Wall panels do most of the work because walls are the largest flat surfaces in the room. The SANA Acoustic Panel (from $311) comes in a large 2800 x 1225 mm format, in 12mm or 24mm thickness. It is made with recycled PET fibre, and its page says it helps reduce echo and improve speech clarity. The surface is pinnable, and the panel suits wall or ceiling use.
Put panels where voices hit first: the walls beside and behind the table, at about seated head height. Treat at least one wall of each facing pair, so sound cannot bounce straight back and forth. If one side of the room is glass, cover the solid wall opposite it. Spreading panels across two or three walls usually works better than one large block on a single wall.
The SANA panel comes in more than 20 colours, from Moonlight and Slate to Shiraz and Pistachio, so it can match a brand palette or blend into a pale wall. It is made to order. For ceilings and a side-by-side look at panel types, read our guide to acoustic panels for office walls, ceilings and screens.
Freestanding acoustic screens for glass walls and open corners
You cannot fix panels to glass, and some leases limit what you can screw into walls. Freestanding screens stand on their own bases and move when the room changes. Our freestanding and mobile partitions range has more sizes.
The Sana Freestanding Designer Acoustic (from $506) is a two tone 24mm panel with an etched groove design, rated NRC 0.70. It sits on a heavyweight powder coated anti trip steel base, and comes 1200, 1500 or 1800mm high, all 560mm wide. A pair in the corners of a glass-walled room adds absorption where panels cannot go.
For a larger room, or one that doubles as a training space, the ZIP 3 Panel Acoustic Divider Screen ($1,134) is rated NRC 0.85. The set is 1830mm wide, 1650mm high and 28mm thick, and the price covers all three panels. Flexible zippers join the panels and let them rotate for any layout, and the fabric surface takes pins. Extension panels are sold separately.
Upholstered chairs and soft seating
Hard plastic or timber chairs add more reflecting surfaces, while each upholstered seat absorbs a little sound. Fabric chairs will not fix a bare room on their own, but around a full table they add up. The Elaro Meeting Chair (from $537) is an upholstered meeting chair with soft curved lines, a wraparound backrest and integrated armrests. Its supportive high back has a gentle recline, and its compact profile suits smaller rooms.
Choose a Black Powdercoated Frame or a 4-Leg Oak Base, and one of four Sunday fabrics: Walnut, Steel Blue, Onyx or Greymist. One fabric across the whole set keeps the room calm.
Soft seating can do double duty. The Motion Otto Stool ($586) is a mobile acoustic stool built from multi-density acoustic foam and a high-density sound substrate. Its page states an independently tested NRC of 0.76. It rolls on castors, so a pair can wait in a corner and come out when the room is full.
The stool is upholstered in Motion Felt, a wool blend, with a Stone Grey cover as standard. Interchangeable covers in other colours are sold separately, and the stool carries a 10-Year Warranty.
Acoustic pinboards and the options compared
An acoustic pinboard gives a meeting room somewhere to pin agendas and plans while it absorbs sound. The LX7 EDGE SANA Acoustic Pinboard ($349) is a 900x600mm panel made with recycled PET, set in a slim LX7 aluminium frame. It mounts in portrait or landscape on a rear-mounted split batten, and the kit is included.
Boards can sit side by side to form a continuous acoustic surface, which suits the long wall beside a meeting table. Colours are Shadow, Frost, Moonlight and Mushroom, and custom sizes go up to 2400x1200mm. The table below compares all six products.
| Product | Type | Size | NRC or thickness (as stated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SANA Acoustic Panel | Wall or ceiling panel | 2800 x 1225mm | 12mm or 24mm thick |
| Sana Freestanding Designer Acoustic | Freestanding screen | 1200, 1500 or 1800mm high, 560mm wide | NRC 0.70, 24mm panel |
| ZIP 3 Panel Acoustic Divider Screen | Three-panel divider | 1830mm wide, 1650mm high | NRC 0.85, 28mm thick |
| Elaro Meeting Chair | Upholstered chair | Compact profile | Not stated |
| Motion Otto Stool | Acoustic stool on castors | Not stated | NRC 0.76 |
| LX7 EDGE SANA Acoustic Pinboard | Framed acoustic pinboard | 900 x 600mm | No NRC stated; frame 20mm deep |
Meeting rooms in Australian offices
Many Australian businesses lease their offices, and leases often ask tenants to return walls to their original condition. Screens, stools and chairs simply move with you. If you plan to fix panels, check your lease first.
Glass-walled meeting rooms are common in CBD towers, and converted industrial buildings often add concrete floors and high ceilings. Both make hard, echoing shells. In rooms like these, start with the largest bare wall, then add screens and soft seating.
Deliveries go to the ground-floor entrance, and each product page has a Delivery line naming its metro cities. The SANA Acoustic Panel and the Sana freestanding screen are made to order and go to metro Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but not WA or SA. The other four products list metro Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
Meeting room echo — frequently asked questions
How do you reduce echo in a meeting room?
Add soft, sound-absorbing surfaces where sound now reflects: acoustic panels on bare walls, freestanding acoustic screens near glass, and upholstered seating. Start with the largest bare wall near the table, then treat the wall opposite it.
Do acoustic panels really reduce echo?
Yes, acoustic panels absorb sound that would otherwise bounce off hard walls, so the room rings less. Panels placed near where people sit and talk make the clearest difference.
What does NRC mean on acoustic products?
NRC rates how much sound a surface absorbs, from 0 for none to 1 for nearly all. In this guide, the ZIP 3 Panel Acoustic Divider Screen states NRC 0.85, the Motion Otto Stool 0.76 and the Sana Freestanding Designer Acoustic 0.70.
Where should acoustic panels go in a meeting room?
Put acoustic panels on the walls closest to where people sit and talk, at about seated head height, and on the solid wall opposite any glass.
Shop the range
Every product in this guide is listed below in the order it appears. Our screens and acoustics range holds more panels, screens and desk dividers.
- SANA Acoustic Panel (from $311): a large pinnable wall or ceiling panel for covering bare meeting room walls
- Sana Freestanding Designer Acoustic (from $506): a movable NRC 0.70 screen for glass-walled rooms and open corners
- ZIP 3 Panel Acoustic Divider Screen ($1,134): a three-panel NRC 0.85 divider for larger meeting and training rooms
- Elaro Meeting Chair (from $537): an upholstered meeting chair with a wraparound back that suits smaller rooms
- Motion Otto Stool ($586): a mobile wool-blend acoustic stool rated NRC 0.76 for extra seats
- LX7 EDGE SANA Acoustic Pinboard ($349): a framed acoustic pinboard for agendas and plans on the long wall
Metro delivery is a flat $75 per order, and prices include GST.
