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Acoustic Treatment Integrated Into Your Design
We design acoustic treatment into the aesthetic itself, matched to your palette and modeled so you and your client see the outcome before it is built.
Why Design-Forward Interiors Struggle Acoustically
You delivered the space you promised. The finishes are exactly right, the photos are portfolio-grade, and the client loved the walkthrough. Then the room fills with people, and nobody can hold a conversation across a table. The beauty is intact. The experience is not.
In a restaurant, diners raise their voices to be heard, which pushes the whole room louder, then louder again. In an office or lobby, every hard surface reflects sound back into the space. Reverberation climbs until conversation turns into work.
The client does not file this under acoustics. They file it under the designer. Acoustics was never in your scope, never in the budget, and never in the brief, but the complaint lands on your desk because you are the person who shaped the room.
The usual rescue makes it worse. Someone specifies off-the-shelf panels after the fact, and now the palette you fought for carries gray foam squares that appear in every future photo. The room performs slightly better and looks noticeably cheaper.
It does not have to go this way. A room can hit its reverberation target and keep its palette when acoustics is designed in early, not bolted on after the first complaint. The finish and the performance can be the same decision.
In a restaurant, diners raise their voices to be heard, which pushes the whole room louder, then louder again. In an office or lobby, every hard surface reflects sound back into the space. Reverberation climbs until conversation turns into work.
The client does not file this under acoustics. They file it under the designer. Acoustics was never in your scope, never in the budget, and never in the brief, but the complaint lands on your desk because you are the person who shaped the room.
The usual rescue makes it worse. Someone specifies off-the-shelf panels after the fact, and now the palette you fought for carries gray foam squares that appear in every future photo. The room performs slightly better and looks noticeably cheaper.
It does not have to go this way. A room can hit its reverberation target and keep its palette when acoustics is designed in early, not bolted on after the first complaint. The finish and the performance can be the same decision.
Common Challenges We Solve.
Acoustics never made it into your scope, but the complaint lands on you.
The finishes that photograph best are the ones that drive reverberation.
Off-the-shelf panels fix the sound and wreck the palette you designed.
Clients cannot picture an acoustic problem until they are standing in it.
Nobody set a reverberation target, so nobody knows what good sounds like.
Fixing it after the fact costs more and shows in every photo.
Hard Finishes Increase Reverberation
Interior Designers
The Acoustic Trade-Off in Modern Materials
Polished concrete, glass walls, exposed ceilings, and clean lines with almost no soft goods define current design taste. They also remove nearly every surface that would absorb sound. The same choices that win the photo shoot leave sound nowhere to go.
Sound reflects off every hard plane and returns to the room again and again. Speech overlaps with its own echo, background noise layers on top, and the reverberation time stretches well past what the ear can tolerate for conversation.
None of this shows up in a rendering or a materials board. The room reads as a triumph on screen and fails the moment it is full. The gap between how it looks and how it performs is invisible until opening day.
So the designer carries a problem they were never asked to solve. The client remembers who chose the finishes, not who left acoustics out of the brief. Protecting the room means treating sound as a design decision from the first sketch.
Sound reflects off every hard plane and returns to the room again and again. Speech overlaps with its own echo, background noise layers on top, and the reverberation time stretches well past what the ear can tolerate for conversation.
None of this shows up in a rendering or a materials board. The room reads as a triumph on screen and fails the moment it is full. The gap between how it looks and how it performs is invisible until opening day.
So the designer carries a problem they were never asked to solve. The client remembers who chose the finishes, not who left acoustics out of the brief. Protecting the room means treating sound as a design decision from the first sketch.
Interior Designers
Finish-Integrated Acoustic Treatment
We treat the room without touching the look. Ceiling clouds and baffles do the acoustic work overhead, where they read as an architectural gesture rather than a patch. The performance lives in the plane the eye already expects to see structure.
On the walls, fabric-wrapped and printed panels carry your palette, your texture, and even your artwork while absorbing the sound the room needs to shed. Micro-perforated surfaces hide the absorption behind wood, metal, or a smooth finish that gives nothing away.
Before anything is ordered, we model the room and show you the reverberation outcome against the palette you have chosen. You and your client see the result before it is built, so the aesthetic and the performance are agreed in the same conversation.
Every element is specified to two standards at once: the reverberation target the room has to hit and the finish standard your design demands. Nothing gets value-engineered into gray foam later, because the acoustics and the aesthetic were designed as one thing.
On the walls, fabric-wrapped and printed panels carry your palette, your texture, and even your artwork while absorbing the sound the room needs to shed. Micro-perforated surfaces hide the absorption behind wood, metal, or a smooth finish that gives nothing away.
Before anything is ordered, we model the room and show you the reverberation outcome against the palette you have chosen. You and your client see the result before it is built, so the aesthetic and the performance are agreed in the same conversation.
Every element is specified to two standards at once: the reverberation target the room has to hit and the finish standard your design demands. Nothing gets value-engineered into gray foam later, because the acoustics and the aesthetic were designed as one thing.
Interior Designers
Our Approach & Capabilities
Memtech works with design teams end to end. We assess the space, set the reverberation target with you, model the outcome against your palette, specify finish-integrated treatment, then supply and install it. One team owns the sound so you can own the design.
Our capabilities include:
- Room acoustic modeling and reverberation time optimization
- Sound isolation analysis and partition design (STC/IIC improvement)
- Speech privacy and sound masking system design
- Vibration control for mechanical and structural systems
- Material selection that meets both performance targets and finish standards
- Installation coordination and post-completion verification testing
Interior Designers
Interior Project Types We Support
Every space below shares one trait. The finishes that make it photograph well, hard floors, glass, exposed structure, also drive reverberation. We work with design teams across these project types so the room performs as well as it looks.
- Restaurants and bars where guests strain to hear across the table
- Hotels and hospitality where the lobby sets the first impression
- Lobbies and atriums where hard surfaces and volume amplify reverberation
- High-end residential where great rooms echo and media rooms leak
- Healthcare and wellness or spa where calm is the product
- Worship and event spaces where every seat needs clear sound
- Education and libraries where focus depends on controlled reverberation
- Multifamily amenity spaces where residents judge the building by them
- Museums and galleries where crowds and hard finishes overwhelm the room
Interior Designers
Acoustics Addressed During Design
Acoustics rarely lives in the original design scope. The complaint arrives after opening, when the client is already frustrated and the budget is spent. By then the only fast fix is panels stuck onto finished surfaces, and they rarely match the palette you built.
When we join during design development, treatment becomes part of the drawing set instead of a retrofit. Ceiling clouds, baffles, and finish-integrated panels get specified alongside your materials, sized to the reverberation target, and drawn where they read as intentional.
We work as part of your team, not around it. You tell us the finish standard and the look you are protecting. We hold the acoustic target and find treatment that fits inside it, so nothing arrives on site that fights the design intent.
Early involvement protects two things at once: your client relationship and the budget. Treatment planned into the build costs less than an emergency retrofit, and the client never experiences the room as a failure. Send us the drawings while the palette is still open.
When we join during design development, treatment becomes part of the drawing set instead of a retrofit. Ceiling clouds, baffles, and finish-integrated panels get specified alongside your materials, sized to the reverberation target, and drawn where they read as intentional.
We work as part of your team, not around it. You tell us the finish standard and the look you are protecting. We hold the acoustic target and find treatment that fits inside it, so nothing arrives on site that fights the design intent.
Early involvement protects two things at once: your client relationship and the budget. Treatment planned into the build costs less than an emergency retrofit, and the client never experiences the room as a failure. Send us the drawings while the palette is still open.
Interior Designers
Modeling the Result Before Installation
We build an acoustic model of the room from your drawings and finish schedule. The model predicts how the space will sound with the materials you have specified, and it flags reverberation problems while they are still lines on a plan, not a client complaint.
From there we show before and after. You see the predicted RT60 for the room as designed, then the same room with treatment added, so the improvement is a number and a picture rather than a promise.
That gives you something to put in front of the client. Instead of asking them to trust that panels will help, you show the modeled outcome and where the treatment sits in the finished room. The decision gets easier for everyone.
After install we measure the finished room and confirm it hit the target the model predicted. The design you approved on screen is the one the client hears in the space. Send us the finish schedule and we will model it.
From there we show before and after. You see the predicted RT60 for the room as designed, then the same room with treatment added, so the improvement is a number and a picture rather than a promise.
That gives you something to put in front of the client. Instead of asking them to trust that panels will help, you show the modeled outcome and where the treatment sits in the finished room. The decision gets easier for everyone.
After install we measure the finished room and confirm it hit the target the model predicted. The design you approved on screen is the one the client hears in the space. Send us the finish schedule and we will model it.
Interior Designers
Treatment We Supply and Install
None of these announce themselves as acoustic treatment. Each one is specified to your palette and finish standard, sized to the reverberation target, and installed by our team. You get the acoustic result without the look of a bolted-on fix.
- Fabric-wrapped acoustic panels in your choice of textile and color
- Ceiling clouds and baffles that read as an architectural feature
- Printed and custom-image acoustic panels carrying artwork or branding
- Micro-perforated wood and metal that looks like solid finish
- Acoustic plaster and stretched-fabric systems for seamless ceilings and walls
- Sound masking that raises speech privacy in open spaces
- Concealed treatment installed above open ceilings and exposed structure
Featured Case Study
Restaurant Reverberation Control
A newly opened restaurant photographed beautifully and drove guests out with noise. The hard floors, glass, and exposed structure that carried the design also carried reverberation. We modeled the room, specified ceiling and wall treatment matched to the finish palette, and hit the reverberation target. The look held, and guests could hear each other again.
Highlights
- Room modeled before install so the client saw the outcome first
- Ceiling and wall treatment matched to the existing finish palette
- Reverberation target met without changing the design intent
- Speech intelligibility restored so guests could hold a conversation
Trusted By
Design teams bring us in to protect the look while the room performs, integrating treatment into the palette from schematic design forward.
Memtech supports interior designers and design firms across commercial and hospitality projects throughout Michigan and the Midwest.
25+ years of acoustic engineering · 2,000+ projects · 50+ years combined engineering experience · NIST-traceable Class 1 instrumentation · Members of ASA and INCE-USA · AIA Michigan and CAM · MBE certified
25+ years of acoustic engineering · 2,000+ projects · 50+ years combined engineering experience · NIST-traceable Class 1 instrumentation · Members of ASA and INCE-USA · AIA Michigan and CAM · MBE certified
Why Memtech Acoustics?
- Precision Over Guesswork
We begin with by acquiring comprehensive data at your location. Our designs are not based on assumptions. - Full-Service, No Shortcuts
We’re Michigan’s only full-service firm. We design it, source it, and install it. - Certified Experts, Not Salespeople
Your project is led by engineers and trained acoustical analysts. We speak the language of results and compliance. - Consultative, Not Cookie-Cutter
No two environments are the same. We tailor every solution around your space, constraints, and business goals. - Quiet With Great Aesthetics
From conference rooms to corporate headquarters, our solutions are as aesthetically refined as they are acoustically effective.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do you treat a room without wrecking the look we designed?
We design acoustics to disappear into the finish. Ceiling clouds, baffles, fabric-wrapped and printed panels, and micro-perforated surfaces match your palette and detailing. We hit the reverberation target while protecting the visual intent you set, so the treatment reads as part of the design, not an add-on.
When should we bring you in?
As early as schematic design. The finishes that photograph best (hard floors, glass, exposed structure) drive reverberation, so acoustics decided early can hit the target and hold the palette. Brought in after a complaint, the fixes get bolted on and compromise the look. Early involvement protects the design and the client relationship.
Can treatment match a specific finish or palette?
Yes. We specify to two standards at once: the performance target and your finish standard. Fabric wraps come in your color and texture range, panels can be printed to artwork, and micro-perforated surfaces read as clean planes. We select treatment that meets the acoustic number and holds the material story you built.
How do you set the RT60 target for a space?
We set reverberation targets by space type and use, drawing on 25+ years and 2,000+ projects. A restaurant, a lobby, and an open office each carry a different comfort range for speech intelligibility. We model the room's volume and surfaces, then specify the absorption needed to land inside that range.
Can you model it so our client sees the outcome first?
Yes. We model the room before anything is built, so you and the client see the acoustic outcome alongside the design. The model shows how the space will perform and where treatment goes. That removes the guesswork and the after-the-fact complaint, and it gives the client confidence in the finished result.
Do you handle restaurants and open offices specifically?
Both are core work. Restaurants trade hard, photogenic finishes for noise where guests cannot hear each other. Open offices lose speech intelligibility and focus to reverberation. We model each, set the target for the use, and integrate absorption into ceilings and walls so the space performs without losing its character.
Do you work from our finish schedule and drawings?
Yes. Send your drawings, finish schedule, and reflected ceiling plan. We design to what you have specified, coordinate treatment locations with your ceiling and wall details, and match materials to your schedule. We work inside your documentation set rather than handing back something that ignores it.
Do you supply and install, or just specify?
We do both. We assess, design, model, specify, supply, and install as one package. Full-package work carries a performance guarantee, so the reverberation target we specify is the target we deliver. You get one accountable partner from early design through the validated result, not a separate specifier, supplier, and installer to coordinate.
What is the cost based on?
Cost tracks scope: room count, square footage, the finish integration required, and whether you want design only or a full supply-and-install package. Engineering fees fund the modeling and specification that let us guarantee the outcome. We phase the work when budget is staged. Send the space details and we will scope it.
What should we send to get started?
Send the drawings, finish schedule, reflected ceiling plan, room dimensions, and photos of the space or the design intent. Tell us the space type, how it will be used, and any complaint you are solving. That gives us enough to model the room and return a target and an approach.
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