Contrary to what you may think, soundproofing and acoustics are not the same, and they require different materials and steps to solve. Before you start tearing down the walls of your conference room, you should determine what sound issue you are dealing with. Let’s dive into the key differences between the two.

Soundproofing a Conference Room

You should focus on soundproofing your conference room if there is noise traveling from other areas of the office to the conference room. Sounds such as people talking in the break room next door, phones ringing, or a printer running can be distracting if they are heard in a conference room. To avoid uninvited noise from disrupting your meeting or meeting discussion topics disturbing those sitting nearby, you will need the right soundproofing materials in your conference room.

Conference Room Acoustics

Another common sound issue with conference rooms is acoustics or the room's sound quality. Conference rooms are generally a place where important meetings take place, so it is of the utmost importance that people are able to hear the speaker clearly. This can be especially important when using video conferencing equipment or a conference phone, where effective communication has extra barriers. Reflective surfaces such as the walls, wooden tables, metal chairs, windows, and hard floors don’t absorb sound and can lead to too much echo and reverb in a room, making it harder to clearly hear someone speaking. If this is an issue you are having with your conference room, you should treat your room with sound absorption materials to improve the sound quality and speech intelligibility.

When soundproofing a room to keep noise out or in, there are a few areas you will want to focus on. Depending on where the noise is coming from and what kind of barriers you already have in place, you should soundproof the walls, ceiling, doors, and windows.

Soundproofing Conference Room Walls & Ceilings

The first area of the room to look at is the walls. In commercial buildings, it’s common for a wall or ceiling to be built for cost-effectiveness and not soundproofing. Walls will often not be well sealed, and have a small gap behind the plastic base molding. This needs to be sealed. A ceiling will often be a drop ceiling, which can lead to sound going right over your wall and down through the paper thin barrier above you. For a wall to be an effective soundproof barrier, it needs to be dense and have an airtight seal to prevent noise from making its way through gaps or cracks in the wall.

Acoustical Sealant

Using acoustical sealant around the wall's perimeter will seal up the gaps and penetrations, creating an airtight barrier. In a commercial building, there is often a ¼” gap between the drywall and the floor. Sound flows like water, so any exposed gaps are potential weak points where sound can make its way into your conference room. Acoustical sealant is the best way to seal up all gaps.

Green Glue + ⅝” Drywall

If there is sound traveling through the wall in your conference room, your best bet is to add an additional layer of ⅝” thick drywall, using Green Glue between the 2 layers. This will substantially increase the amount of sound blocked by the wall, and bring your wall soundproofing up to the required amount for an office environment. Always seal the existing wall and the new 5/8” drywall with acoustical sealant.

Conference Room Ceiling Tile Backers

If you have a shared dropped ceiling space, sound is traveling over your wall and into your space. Because a typical ceiling tile blocks sound about as well as a piece of cardboard, your best options are to add our CelluZorbe ceiling tile backer behind each ceiling tile. For high noise environments, you’ll also want to install our MLV light covers above all your lights. You can also improve the acoustics by replacing your ceiling tiles with one of our acoustic ceiling tiles to work in tandem with the ceiling tile backer (but more on that below).

Soundproof Doors for a Conference Room

The next area to focus on is the door. Doors are weak points in a room, and should always be soundproofed in a room with a noise issue. Most offices will go with a door seal kit, but depending on how loud the noise issue is some companies are looking for the most soundproof office door on the market.

Sound Lock Door Seal Kit

To soundproof the conference room door, you’ll need to keep sound from going around it. That’s what our Sound Lock Door Seal Kit is designed to do. This adjustable seal kit closes off the area between the door and the door frame and also has a seal that drops down when the door is closed to seal the bottom. This seal kit will increase the STC rating of your door by up to 20 points.

Conference ROom Windows (If any)

There is nothing worse than the sound of car horns, construction, or sirens disrupting your important meeting. If there is outside noise traveling through the windows in the conference room, the steps to take are actually very straightforward.

Fantastic Frame Soundproof Window Inserts

Our Fantastic Frame Window Inserts are a great way to soundproof a window and reduce outside noise. They are compatible with just about any existing window and easy to install. They can also easily be removed if you want to open the window at any point. These window inserts will reduce noise transmission through the window by up to 80% as well as substantially increasing the thermal insulation, which will save you on heating/cooling bills over time. In commercial building, we’ve seen these window inserts pay for themselves with lower energy bills in under a year.

Do voices bounce all over the walls in your conference room, garbling everyone’s voices? Poor sound quality makes it incredibly hard to focus on the important details of a meeting, and reduces how well communication is understood. Installing some acoustic panels on the walls of your conference room is a great way to counter this.

Conference Room Acoustic Panels for Walls

Our recommendation for improving the acoustics of a conference room is to use acoustic wall panels. These panels not only look great, but they also perform very well. You don’t have to sacrifice the professional aesthetic of a room for sound absorption. Below, we have some great options and some recommendations on how to go about installing them. We have a wide variety of options, meant to be able to fit any budget. We cover all of those in the table below!

Conference Room Acoustic ceiling tiles

If you have a dropped ceiling grid in your conference room, the good news is you can treat your whole space with the easiest install ever! Our EZ drop acoustic ceiling tiles will drastically improve the acoustics in your space. Check out our decorative acoustic ceiling tiles and polyester fiber acoustic tiles for a classy option, our wood wool acoustic ceiling tiles for a natural look, and our ceiling tile that blocks and absorbs sound.

With smaller airgaps above the ceiling grid (no more than 3 or so feet), pair them with an acoustical backer for a 1-2 absorb and block combo!

How Many Acoustic Panels Do You Need?

It is important to calculate how many acoustic panels to use in your conference room. Too many acoustic panels will result in the room sounding flat and dry, while too little will not have the desired absorption effect.

Determining how many panels to use in a small standard sized room can be simple, but for a conference room, there are a number of factors that come into play. High ceilings, large spaces, lots of reflective surfaces, and large windows are all things that can affect the amount of acoustical material to use. Check out our acoustical treatment calculator for some basic guidance on a small to medium sized conference room.

For a larger conference room, we recommend reaching out. Our soundproofing experts can calculate how many panels you’ll need and even what type of panel will work best by creating an acoustical analysis of the conference room. The fastest way to reach us is to call 1-800-679-8511.

Where to Place Acoustic Panels in a Room?

It is also important to know where to place acoustic panels correctly to get the best results. As a rule of thumb, the panels should be placed on at least two adjacent walls as opposed to on two parallel walls, at about the same height you’d install a picture frame.

You can always place the panels right next to each other to create a design or meet particular aesthetic, but to max out the acoustic performance of each panel you should place them 6-12” apart from each other. For more information on the placement of acoustic panels, check out our article on the topic.

Now that your conference room is properly soundproof, you can finally close that business deal without outside distractions. If you are considering soundproofing your whole office, check out our article on office noise control and a soundproof workstation.

If you have any more questions about soundproofing or acoustics, feel free to reach out to us at Second Skin. One of our soundproofing experts will be happy to help you!