Acoustic panels—what, when, where? | BuzziSpace

Acoustic panels, acoustic baffles, sound panels, and acoustic boards. The list of names continues. Call it whatever you prefer, just like many manufacturers do. For sake of clarity, we stick to acoustic panels in this guide. Despite the descriptive name, you will find various interpretations, both wide and narrow along with different use cases.

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Therefore, in this guide, we will dive into the basics of acoustic panels. More specifically, we will answer the following questions:

1. What is an acoustic panel?
2. When to use acoustic panels?
3. Where to apply acoustic panels?

To get the most out of this guide, make sure to check one of our other guides, The Basics of Noise Reduction, where we zoom in on the essential terminology of acoustics.

What is an acoustic panel?

The category of acoustic solutions is growing, and within this segment, you will find a range of different solutions, including acoustic panels. These are not limited to acoustic baffles suspended from the ceiling. To treat acoustic problems in your office, studio, and meeting room, there are plenty of other solutions available—some of which we will present to you in this guide.

But, first things first. Let’s define what an acoustic panel is.

An acoustic panel is a sound-absorbing panel used to mitigate background noise and reduce the reverberation and echo in a space. When we talk about an acoustic panel, we refer to it in its broadest sense including vertical and horizontal panels.

When to use acoustic panels?

With a better understanding of what acoustic panels are, we can now move on to the next question: when to use acoustic panels?

As mentioned earlier, vertical and horizontal panels can be characterized by different features related to their acoustic performance. However, we can specify it even further.

— Mitigate sound transfers with vertical acoustic panels

In general, vertical panels help mitigate sound transfers in a space, preventing that sound travels from one end of the room to the other. Vertical panels may also aid in lowering background noise to an acceptable level. For instance, in many modern open-space offices, the noise levels range from 60-80 decibels, while the recommended level is 45-55 decibels.

Therefore, if the goal is to reduce background noise and the reverb time, possible vertical solutions include:

• Freestanding panels, such as BuzziScreen, BuzziFrio, and BuzziBlinds.
• Ceiling-suspended panels, such as BuzziLoose and BuzziGrid.
• Wall-mounted panels, such as BuzziMood or some of the latest launches BuzziDish, BuzziTab Soft and BuzziKey Soft.

Alternatively, opt for sound-absorbing wallpaper, such as BuzziSkin Printed, to bring dull walls back to life! 

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In order to remove background noise completely, ideally, you have to build floor-to-ceiling partitions or remove yourself from the noise source. Yet, vertical panels can go a long way to help reduce sound transfers.

— Improve direct absorption with horizontal acoustic panels

Horizontal panels, on the other hand, are primarily used for direct absorption. To stop sound waves from spreading, absorptive panels must be used to convert the sound energy into heat through friction. Made from sound-absorbing materials or soft acoustic foam, all our horizontal panels are performing well in terms of absorption.

Examples of possible solutions for direct absorption include a range of ceiling-suspended panels such as BuzziLand, BuzziDonut, BuzziBlox, and BuzziPleat.

Check out another guide providing more in-depth recommendations for which acoustic solution might be best to solve your acoustic problem. Read it here.

Where to apply acoustic panels?

Whether you want to limit sound transfers, reduce background noise and reverb time, it’s crucial to determine the location of the acoustic panels to achieve the best performance. Finding the ideal positioning depends on several factors, including

• room type,
• the activity of the space,
• existing furniture, and
• materials in the space (e.g. glass, plastic, wood).

Here, we will primarily share general advice on where to apply acoustic panels. For specific recommendations and simulations, we suggest you get in touch with our acoustic help desk. Generally speaking, we can define a few guidelines for placing acoustic panels. The first step involves asking yourself: What is the size of the space? Are you dealing with a small or big space?

In smaller rooms, for instance, meeting rooms, designated focus areas, and private offices, sound waves will typically first bounce against the walls. Why? These are usually the hard surfaces closest to the sound source. As a consequence, you should be looking into using wall-mounted acoustic panels. These will help absorb the sound, reducing the number of waves that are sent back into the room. Examples include BuzziPod, BuzziSkin, BuzziMood, and BuzziBlox.

In bigger rooms and large spaces, sound waves behave differently. Sound energy propagates in any space, but in larger spaces, less sound energy is bouncing back into the room as the original sound sometimes drops dead before even reaching a hard element.

Yet, often sound waves do hit a hard surface before dropping dead—typically the ceiling rather than the walls. In these cases, horizontal ceiling-suspended acoustic panels can help improve the sound of the space considerably. When suspended from the ceiling, horizontal panels absorb undesired sound waves. For improved acoustic performance, install the panels in different suspension heights. The air pockets between the panels will capture sound waves, preventing them from traveling even further in spaces with high ceilings.

Examples of possible ceiling-suspended panels include BuzziZepp, BuzziDonut, BuzziGrid, and BuzziPleat. Some of these acoustic panels also come with an LED option for improved functionality. This way you can turn your acoustic panels into acoustic lighting and combine two features in one.

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I am finally getting ready to think about acoustic panels and have some questions.

This is the front of the room

My initial thought is to put a panel on each side of the television. What I do not know is how big the panels need to be or at what height I should mount them. As you can see, I have a window on one adjacent wall and an opening to the dining room on the other. We will eventually put drapes on the window, but will likely do blinds first. The subwoofer is tucked into the front, right corner, which is about the only place I can put it.

The second question is what kind of panels I need? I've looked at a bunch. For cost reasons, I am currently leaning toward these, but I have no idea what the various panel specs mean or how to know which to use.
https://www.atsacoustics.com/item--ATS-Acoustic-Panel-24-x-48-x-2--.html My advice is based on the idea that since this is a common space and needs to be dinner party friendly you cannot fully treat the room and solve all the core issues with panels. As such, I would look into merely "taming" the overall loudness, echo, and sloppiness of the overall room performance as opposed to focusing on specific issues related to stereo listening.

1st Suggested Approach
Put two vertical 2 x 4 panels at the same height as the TV, where the center of the TV's height is the center of the panels' height. You can then space them so they look balanced on the wall, filling in the bare wall space between the TV and the corners - but for artistic reasons I would not place them directly between the TV and the corners, but closer to the TV to take advantage of the horizon line aspect which will make the room look deeper in that direction. As in, place the panels at the 2/5ths point between the TV and the corners where they are closer to the TV. It will look like a larger room and be pleasing on the eyes.

Next, if you are up to it, I would consider putting foam corner block bass traps all along the ceiling / wall intersection above the TV. You can probably find a foam color which matched the paint of the trim in the room so it looks more like a soffit than an acoustic material until one looks very closely.

Those two things would help immensely.

2nd Suggested Approach
If you want to go more hardcore you could cover the entire wall with acoustic panels of a pleasing color making the whole wall appear to be an "accent wall" covered with fabric panels like you'd see in a hotel lobby or similar artsy public space. That would take more work, but you could do it fairly affordably.

3rd Approach
You could place 2 ft tall panels in a solid line centered at the center height of the TV across the entire front wall, making a lovely looking and effective reflection control line.


Regardless of which of those three you go with, or whatever you choose, think about adding acoustic absorbing materials to the room where you can. For instance, if you are hanging a photo, you could get or make a fabric wrapped fiberglass panel slightly larger than the photo frame and back it with a thin sheet of plywood which you run a bolt through for hanging the photo. Then mount the panel and hang the photo on the front of the panel. While the photo will still reflect treble, the midrange and upper bass characteristics of the acoustic fiberglass will be fully effective and taming the room. If you have an open shelf bookcase in the room, you could put 1" thick foam or fabric covered fiberglass against the room facing back of the shelf areas to absorb sound, place you books and trinkets in front of the foam/fiberglass. If you are hanging a stretched canvas artwork, fill the area behind the canvas with fiberglass or foam like I did (and posted photos on the forum) so the midrange is cleaned up a bit.

Basically, it is easy to make some effort to treat a room without ruining the design and aesthetics. In many cases the acoustic treatments can enhance the appearance of the room. I put some artsy looking diffusors / absorbers I got from GIK Acoustics in my family room and people love them. Not a single person who has seen them thinks they are unattractive.