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Backlit and Wave-Pattern Acoustic Wall Panels for an Office in the Fraser Valley

Location
Fraser Valley, BC
Completed
May 2026
Building type
Office (meeting room and open office)
Systems
Custom patterned acoustic wall panels with integrated LED backlighting, Wave-pattern acoustic wall panels
Services
Acoustic Paneling

Project overview

AMZ Installations completed this acoustic wall panel installation for an office meeting room in the Fraser Valley, BC. The project brought together custom patterned acoustic panels and integrated LED backlighting to solve two problems at once: echo in a busy meeting room, and the need for a feature wall that gives the room a clear identity. Instead of hiding the acoustic treatment, the design makes it the centrepiece of the space.

The work covered two areas of the same office. In the meeting room, we installed a backlit feature wall of custom patterned acoustic panels. In the open office, we added a set of wave-pattern acoustic wall panels to bring sound absorption and colour to the main work area.

As commercial acoustical contractors based in Mission, BC, we install acoustic wall panels, acoustic ceilings and specialty feature walls for offices, boardrooms and commercial interiors across the Fraser Valley, Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. This meeting room is a good example of the kind of work where acoustic performance and finish quality matter equally.

The space

The room is a working meeting space used every day: a long conference table seats the team, a blue accent wall holds a whiteboard, and the ceiling is a T-bar system with recessed downlights. It is a practical layout, but almost every surface in it is hard. Painted drywall, the whiteboard, the tabletop and the glazing in the building all reflect sound instead of absorbing it.

In rooms like this, the problem shows up as soon as the table fills. Voices overlap, sound keeps bouncing between parallel walls, and the background noise rises as people speak louder to be heard. Video calls suffer the most, because microphones pick up the echo along with the voice and remote participants struggle to follow the conversation.

The challenge

The brief had two parts. First, improve the acoustic performance of the meeting room so conversations and calls are clear. Second, do it in a way that adds to the design instead of looking like a technical add-on. The client wanted a clean, modern feature wall that people would notice for its look, while it quietly did the acoustic work in the background.

That combination raises the bar for installation. A plain acoustic panel can hide small imperfections; a patterned feature wall with lighting cannot. Every joint, groove and edge is on display from the moment someone walks into the room.

The design: two backlit niches with a continuous pattern

The solution is built around two large recessed niches on the main wall, each with rounded ends that echo the curves in the panel pattern. Inside the niches, textured grey acoustic panels carry a grooved design of concentric arcs and long parallel lines. The arcs gather at the rounded ends and the lines run through the middle, so the pattern reads as one continuous graphic across each niche.

The pattern is made from modular square and rectangular panels rather than one large sheet. That modular approach makes the wall practical to build, but it means the design only works if every groove lines up perfectly from one panel to the next.

How we installed the acoustic wall panels

Set-out first. Before a single panel went up, the layout was set out across each niche so the arcs and lines would land in the right place and stay continuous across the joints.

Panel by panel. Each panel was positioned to match its neighbours, keeping the grooves aligned horizontally and around every curve. On a patterned wall, a small offset at one joint carries across the whole design, so alignment was checked as the work progressed.

Clean edges at the curves. The rounded ends of the niches are the most demanding part of the job. The panels at the curves had to follow the shape cleanly, with tight edges and no visible gaps between the panel field and the niche.

Finished as one piece. The result is a wall where the joints recede and the pattern takes over, which is what makes a modular feature wall look custom.

Integrated LED backlighting

A continuous LED strip runs around the full perimeter of both niches. The light washes across the textured face of the panels, picks out the depth of the grooves and creates a soft halo around each shape. With the main lights on, the wall adds warmth and interest to the room; with the lights dimmed for a presentation, it becomes the room's focal point.

The lighting also changes how the acoustic treatment is perceived. Instead of reading as a sound-absorbing product, the wall reads as an architectural feature, which was exactly the goal of the brief.

How acoustic wall panels improve a meeting room

Most of the sound that causes echo in a meeting room travels at seated ear level and bounces between the walls. Acoustic wall panels absorb part of that sound energy where it hits the wall, instead of reflecting it back into the room. Less reflected sound means shorter reverberation, lower background noise and clearer speech for everyone at the table and on the call.

Placement matters as much as the product. The aim is not to cover every surface, but to treat the areas where reflections are strongest. Concentrating the panels on the main wall, in a large and deliberate shape, delivers the acoustic benefit while keeping the rest of the room clean and uncluttered.

Open office acoustic panels with a wave pattern

The second part of the project moved out of the meeting room and into the open office. Open-plan work areas have the same hard surfaces as a meeting room (drywall, glazing, desks and screens), but with more people talking at once, phone calls and constant movement along the corridors. Without treatment, that noise spreads across the floor and makes it harder for the team to concentrate.

On a white partition wall facing the workstations and the main corridor, we installed four tall acoustic wall panels in a warm mustard tone. Each panel carries a flowing pattern of vertical wave-shaped grooves, and the four panels are mounted side by side with even spacing so the waves read as one continuous composition across the wall.

The panels do two jobs. Acoustically, they absorb part of the sound that would otherwise reflect off the wall and back into the work area, helping reduce background noise in the open office. Visually, they turn a plain partition into a point of colour and texture that ties in with the patterned feature wall in the meeting room, so both areas of the office share the same design language.

As with the meeting room, the result depends on precise installation: the four panels had to be set at the same height, with equal gaps and perfectly vertical edges, so the wave pattern flows from one panel to the next without a visible break.

Attention to detail

Feature walls are unforgiving. A misaligned groove, an uneven joint or a gap at a curve is visible from across the room, and under backlighting even small shadows are exaggerated. Precise set-out, consistent alignment, tight joints and clean edges along the curved niches are what make this wall read as one continuous, intentional piece of design.

The result

The office now has controlled acoustics in both the meeting room and the open work area. The backlit feature wall makes the meeting room clearer for conversations and video calls and gives it a strong identity, while the wave-pattern panels reduce noise and add warmth to the open office. Together, they show how acoustic wall panels can improve both how an office sounds and how it feels.

Frequently asked questions

Can acoustic wall panels be customized with patterns?

Yes. Acoustic panels are available with grooved, routed and printed patterns, and modular panels can be laid out so a design runs continuously across the whole wall, as in this meeting room.

Do acoustic panels help in an open office?

Yes. In open offices, acoustic wall panels absorb part of the sound reflected by walls and glazing, which helps lower background noise and makes the space more comfortable to work in. They work best combined with an acoustic ceiling and placed where conversations and circulation concentrate.

Can acoustic panels be combined with LED lighting?

Yes. Perimeter or integrated LED lighting can be planned around acoustic panels to create backlit feature walls. Lighting and panel layout should be planned together so the light falls evenly across the panel surface.

How many acoustic panels does a meeting room need?

It depends on the room size, the surfaces and how the room is used. In many meeting rooms, treating the main wall where reflections are strongest makes a clear difference. We recommend an approach after reviewing the space or the drawings.

Do you install acoustic wall panels outside Mission?

Yes. We are based in Mission and install acoustic wall panels across the Fraser Valley, including Abbotsford, Langley, Maple Ridge and Chilliwack, as well as Surrey, Burnaby, Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.

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AMZ Installations installs acoustic wall panels, backlit acoustic feature walls and acoustical ceilings for offices, boardrooms and commercial spaces in Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Abbotsford and across the Fraser Valley. Send us your drawings or photos of the space and we will prepare a quote.

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