Acoustic Portable Room Divider Range

Open spaces in offices and sectors including education, hospitality, and healthcare present a constant challenge in acoustics. While open spaces do lead themselves to a more free and collaborative environment; over-bustling office spaces can often hamper bottom-line productivity. At Portable Partitions, our advanced and stylishly designed acoustic portable room dividers help you effectively reduce the echo and absorb the sound. Use our partitions and experience intelligently crafted and functional spaces without any overhead costs or loss of productivity.

Acoustic Room Dividers

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Choosing the right Room Divider

Choosing the right sound control furniture is key to achieving acoustic harmony in an office, classroom or venue.
Portable Partitions has multiple solutions that are created to suit all kinds of design and sound needs.

When choosing the right partition you should consider:

Size of the space or gap to be divided (length & height)
Portable Room Divider or Operable Wall
Fabric or Polycarbonate
Folding or Sliding design
Portable or Wall Mounted partition
All room dividers can be opened and closed easily

Portable Room Divider or Operable Wall

In a nutshell:

Portable Room dividers are freestanding, easy to move around and designed for flexibility.
Operable walls are designed to divide big rooms when portable room dividers aren’t big enough and are fixed
to a wall on one end.

360 Degree Portable Room Divider Product Video

Sliding Wall Mounted Operable Wall – Product Video

To decide between portable room dividers and operable walls at least 4 factors should be considered.

Wall length requirements and size of the gap to be divided (length and height).
Availability of nearby walls
Flexibility of movement and use within the building.
Materials needed.

Two connected Charcoal and Grey 360 Degree Portable Room Divider in office

Portable Room Dividers:

These partitions don’t rely on existing walls for stability, they can be easily moved to different rooms in the building and are available in two very different materials: fabric and polycarbonate.

Their height range is from 1.8m up to 2.3m in height.
Their length range is from 2.6m up to 7.6m in length.
Longer walls can be achieved by connecting together as much partitions as needed.
Folding and sliding (telescoping) designs are available.

Operable Walls

Operable Walls are usually floor to ceiling height partitions with one end fixed to an existing wall for stability.

Their height range is from 2.5m up to 3.7m.
Their length range is from 2.3m up to 5.8m for folding design.
Their length range is from 2.3m up to 4.6m for sliding design (telescoping).

Our design doesn’t require a structural beam or tracking system which helps reduce their cost by a huge factor when compared to traditional Operable Walls systems.

Operable Walls — Tall sliding wall mounted operable wall

Fabric vs Polycarbonate – Making the right sound choice

In a nutshell:

Polycarbonate room dividers are strong and easy to clean.
Fabric room dividers reduce noise and have pinnable surfaces.

It is essential to know that soft furnishings like fabrics reduce sound reverberation to a great extent meanwhile
hard, reflective surfaces like polycarbonate do not absorb any sound.

Polycarbonate Room Dividers

Polycarbonate is a medical grade material that is recommended when visual separation is important, regular cleaning is expected and when translucency/transparency is not an issue.

Coloured polycarbonate makes it difficult to see through

Clear polycarbonate allows to see and let’s light through

Design considerations are:

Coloured polycarbonate doesn’t allow shape details to be seen through unless heavily backlit
Regular polycarbonate (clear) allows to see through to some degree (50% transparency).
Coloured polycarbonate is available in black, grey and white.
Room dividers can be manufactured with panels of one or any combination of available colours.
The polycarbonate surface is not pinnable and will bounce most sound back instead of absorbing it.

Fabric Room Dividers

Help absorb a percentage of the sound waves that hit the divider. This allows them to reduce reverberation and noise in general between the separated areas in a room. We, therefore, recommend that workstations and cubicles should be made from a soft acoustic panel to reduce the reverberation, rather than from pure glass, polycarbonate or perspex.

Design considerations are:

You can’t see through the fabric and light can’t come through.
The pinnable surface allows the room divider to work as a pinboard for project or artwork display.
Fabrics are available in beige, black, charcoal, cloud grey, navy blue, red and yellow.
Room dividers can be manufactured with panels of one or any combination of colours.

Folding or Sliding Design (360 Degree vs Telescoping Room Dividers)

Folding room dividers allow you to configure them in any shape or form, including a straight line.
Sliding Room Dividers can only expand in a straight line by telescoping from the closed position.

Folding Polycarbonate Room Divider

Sliding Fabric Telescoping Room Dividers

If maximum set up flexibility is expected, a folding room divider with hinges that let every panel rotate to any position is the best option.

If different shapes or configurations are not expected to be required now or in the future a sliding room divider will easily provide a straight line configuration.

Wall Mounted vs Portable (freestanding)

Wall mounting a room divider helps it keep a fixed position within a room
A portable room divider can be moved easily to different rooms and locations within the premises

Wall Mounted 360 Degree Fabric Room Divider

Essentially our Wall Mounted Room Dividers are Portable Room Dividers that are wall mounted by fixing one of their end panels to a wall with L brackets.

Because they are essentially the same product they can be repurposed and moved to a different location as a portable partition if detached from the wall.

If the room divider may be used for multiple purposes then a portable room divider is a future proof option.

Benefits of Acoustic Partitioning

Open-plan offices are often implemented with the belief that they increase collaboration and teamwork. However, compelling employees to work in the open impacts their health and productivity.

Increased Productivity

Access to smaller and quieter spaces for focused work is key to boost productivity.

As the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, recently mentioned: “The idea is to make the perfect engineering space: one giant room that fits thousands of people, all close enough to collaborate together. But, crucially, it will also have plenty of private, quiet spaces as well”.

With office workers losing 86 minutes a day due to distractions! the opportunity cost of open working spaces without private workstations is high.

Polycarbonate 360 Degree Room Divider in office space

Noise Reduction

Video calls, group discussions or chit chat can all get in the way of creating a healthy and productive environment where things get done.

Reducing and controlling the compounding sound that groups of people create in professional workplaces is one of the main benefits of acoustic partitioning.

Portable Partitions’s acoustic walls and dividers are designed to help manage and control the sound in offices, which thereby encourages collaboration and boosts productivity.

When sound reduction is a priority, acoustic panels and floor to ceiling partitions should be considered.

Maximise Flexibility

With workspace layout plans constantly changing, mobility and flexibility are the guiding principles for effective workspace management that is also future proof.

Flexible and mobile acoustic dividers that instantly adapt spaces can help maintain an optimum balance between collaboration and individual in focus as conditions change.

Applications Of Acoustic Partitioning

Hampton Park venue divided by Telescoping partitions — Hampton park venue with fabric Telescoping room dividers

Acoustics play an integral role in the success and functionality of a place. Acoustic room dividers and partitioning lend themselves to multiple applications.

Visual Separation

Room dividers help create smaller distraction free environments within a bigger space. They can act as a wall to create a completely new space or simple as visual separation to hide messy storage areas, or distracting equipment.

Sound Reduction

They can be used to effectively manage sounds within training sessions, meeting rooms, classrooms, presentation arenas or temporary office spaces. With the rise of video calls, sound dampening has become more relevant than ever.

Project Boards

Additionally, our Fabric room dividers work as multiuse walls that also double-up as collaborative project boards since they can easily be used to pin up material and customised with a ‘whiteboard finish.

Project work displayed on Room Divider at Sydney school classroom

Understanding Sound – Soundproofing vs Noise Reduction

As an overview

Sound travels through air so if there are gaps or air circulation in a room, sound will travel there
Some materials absorb sound whether some materials bounce back sound creating loud environments.
Noise reduction consists in introducing sound absorbing materials in a room to dampen noise.
A sound proof wall requires both an acoustically engineered material that doesn’t let sound through as well as sealing of any gaps that might let sound travel through.

Black fabric acoustic portable room divider for noise reduction — Black Fabric Acoustic Portable Room Divider

At Portable Partitions Australia our acoustic room dividers work with the concept of noise reduction, absorbing sound that hits the fabric surface of the divider. This opens the possibility to manage and reduce noise in a space, especially reverberation, chit chat, and echo by adding sound absorbing partitions.

As you may imagine, if a divider needs to move, creating a perfectly sealed mobile division is extremely hard to do no matter what material is used and completely soundproof divisions are best achieved by building a traditional wall (that can’t move). Soundproofing expectations and claims should be inspected carefully.

When further sound dampening is required, we recommend installing acoustic wall panels and ceiling tiles to further reduce echo, reverberation and noise within a room.

Conclusion

Some of the world’s most well-respected companies including the BBC, Facebook, Twitter, Virgin, and more have adopted the open-plan office design. While this can boost collaboration, balance and employee well-being remain essential. Creating quiet and smaller spaces dedicated for focused work is what differentiates work environments that thrive.

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Acoustic Room Dividers FAQs

What are acoustic portable room dividers?

Acoustic portable room dividers are movable partitions to divide spaces, minimizing the sound transfer. Made up of sound-absorbing materials that reduce noise levels, they are ideal for any space, including offices, schools, hospitality venues, waiting rooms, retail spaces, exhibition centres and art galleries.

How effective are portable soundproof walls?

When you need to reduce sound transmission, portable walls are highly effective at reducing noise reverberation and echo, due to the highly absorbent materials they are manufactured with. It is not possible soundproof an area with freestanding acoustic room dividers, as sound will travel where air flows, yet they can help to minimize sound to create quieter environments within larger spaces.

Where can I use acoustic portable room dividers?

Acoustic portable room dividers are ideal for open-plan offices, classrooms, libraries, event spaces, studios, to create private spaces in hospitality areas, and other commercial settings.

Are acoustic portable room dividers easy to move?

Yes, acoustic room dividers are designed with the consideration of mobility. They are made using lightweight materials, foldable panels, and are supported by castor wheels, making them easy for a single person to manoeuvre as needed. When not required, simply fold them up and store them away.

What is the difference between acoustic portable room dividers and traditional walls?

The main differences are:

Mobility: Portable dividers can be easily moved and configured for various purposes; traditional walls are fixed and permanent.
Installation: Dividers require no construction or building works, making them an excellent solution if building works are not permitted.
Flexibility: Dividers offer temporary solutions when flexibility is a priority, while traditional walls are fixed and permanently in place

How do I maintain acoustic portable room dividers?

Maintenance is simple and involves:

Dusting or vacuuming will remove dust and residual dirt to ensure the surface looks clean.
Polycarbonate finishes can withstand medical grade disinfectant if regular sanitation is required.
Warm water can be applied to spot clean fabric finishes that are marked.
Ensuring wheels or hinges are not damaged for smooth movement.

Do portable soundproof walls block 100% of noise?

No, they cannot block 100% of the noise due to their portable design.

To achieve soundproofing, you will require a sealed acoustic barrier. The Noise Reduction Coefficient is largely irrelevant with mobile room dividers because any sound waves that don’t hit the panel will not be absorbed. For a mobile room divider which is not floor to ceiling height there will be space around the divider. Therefore, mobile room dividers can only achieve sound dampening and reduction of noise reverberation. They have gaps by design to give them mobile flexibility.

Your best option for "soundproofing" is a track mounted operable wall. They have high NRC panels, are designed to telescope out in a straight line (and can fold back when not needed), and have a sealed panel joint above, below, between and beside all panels. However, if you're looking for a mobile freestanding divider, please understand it won't be possible to achieve a soundproof barrier as there is a trade off to be made when looking for flexibility, mobility and soundproofing.

Are acoustic portable room dividers cost-effective?

Yes, they are a cost-effective alternative when compared to permanent construction. They provide flexibility, reduce noise, and can be configured for different uses, making them a valuable investment.