Micro-perforated fabric that lets sound through to absorption in the cavity, lit from behind in the same plane. One surface doing two jobs, in any shape, on ceilings and on walls.
An acoustic luminous ceiling is a stretch fabric ceiling that carries the absorption and the light in the same plane. The fabric is CLIPSO micro-perforated knit polyester. The perforation is micro scale and is not visible at normal viewing distance, so the finished surface reads as a plain matte ceiling and not as a perforated panel. Sound passes through the fabric into the cavity behind it, where the absorptive backing and the depth of the air space do the work. The LED field sits in that same cavity and lights the fabric from behind. The result is one continuous surface instead of a ceiling split between acoustic panels in one place and light fixtures in another.
This is not a fixture and it is not a tile. There is no module, no grid and no fixed panel size, so the outline is whatever the drawing says. We bend the frames on our own CNC in Dania Beach, which is why curves, islands, closed shapes and wall panels all come out of the same shop as the flat ceiling. The fabric clips in cold and dry and it unclips again, so the LEDs, the wiring and the absorber stay reachable for the life of the space. Two things we will say plainly. We do not hold an ASTM C423 absorption report and we publish no NRC number. We also do not carry fire test data from our PVC membrane finishes onto this fabric, so there is no classification claim on this page and this assembly is not offered for use in a return air plenum. What we can do is explain exactly how the assembly absorbs, submit the fabric and the absorber with their own manufacturers' flame spread documentation for the AHJ, build a lit mockup at your cavity depth, and arrange third party testing of a specific build-up on request.
Acoustic panels and light fixtures normally fight over the same ceiling. Here they are the same surface. The fabric passes sound to the absorber behind it while the LED field lights it from the cavity, so absorption and light share one surface with no visible panel grid, no troffer layout and no compromise between the two. How much quieter the room gets depends on the backing, the cavity depth and the rest of the finishes, so we size it with you and prove it on a mockup.
Tile and panel systems make you design in their module. We bend the frame on our own CNC, so the acoustic luminous plane can be a curve, an island, a closed shape or a wall panel, and it can change size without changing the detail. Walls get the same build-up as ceilings, which matters in studios, lounges and boardrooms.
The fabric is a cold, dry clip-in. It unclips and goes back in without heat, adhesive or damage. A failed strip, a driver swap or a device relocation is a short service call, not demolition. Nothing above the fabric is bonded or captive, and everything from the driver output to the last diode is low voltage.
The rooms we get asked for most often in South Florida. The full list is further down the page.
Restaurants, bars and hotel prefunction, where every other surface is hard and the ceiling is the only real estate left for absorption.
Corporate lobbies, boardrooms and open plan offices that need the room quieter without a visible acoustic panel grid overhead.
Broadcast, podcast and content studios, home theaters, listening rooms and multifamily amenity lounges that want acoustic walls and a lit ceiling from the same shop and the same drawing set.
Med spas, dental suites and clinic waiting rooms, plus houses of worship, lecture halls and training rooms where reverberation is the complaint and the ceiling is the surface left to treat it.
The assembly goes in from the structure down. None of it is a fixed panel size, so the order is the same whether the finished shape is a rectangle, an island or a wall.
We field measure, laser the deck for the real available depth, and issue one drawing set carrying the fabric outline, the frame layout, the LED centers, the absorber zones, the driver locations and every penetration. One set, one crew. The lighting layout and the ceiling layout are not two separate submittals from two separate trades.
Extruded 6063 aluminum clip-in track is fixed to the wall, soffit or hat channel at the finished plane. Where the plane floats away from the wall, the perimeter becomes a cove profile instead: AP-301 wall perimeter, AP-302 ceiling top, or AP-302-W wall perimeter D at 2 in x 1 in. Curved runs are bent on our CNC before they ship. Nothing is kerfed on site.
Straight runs come in 6.5 ft stock on most profiles. Luminous forms and larger freestanding shapes use AP-212 and AP-213 LuxForm, with AP-213 supplied in 4000 mm (13 ft 1-1/2 in) lengths at 8 in or 4.5 in profile height, bendable into U, C and O shapes and combinable for large architectural forms. AP-216 handles floating shapes. Where a linear light line crosses or edges the acoustic field, AP-305, AP-306 and AP-307 (mini, midi, maxi) are set in the same plane so the light line sits flush with the fabric rather than proud of it.
This is the part most people get wrong. The cavity is doing two jobs at once and they pull in opposite directions. Light wants a bright reflective box. Sound wants an absorptive one. We line the returns and the surfaces immediately around the LED runs in white, and we use white faced absorber so the cavity keeps its bounce. Anything grey or black behind a backlit fabric prints through as a shadow. Ducts, conduit, hangers and sprinkler drops inside the cavity are relocated or wrapped white before the LEDs go in.
1 in to 2 in (25 mm to 50 mm) of white faced polyester acoustic felt, or mineral wool with a white tissue facing, is fixed to the deck or hung on the cavity side and held a minimum of 1 in clear of the back of the fabric. The absorber is submitted with its own manufacturer's flame spread documentation for the AHJ. It never touches the fabric. Coverage in our build is typically 60 to 75 percent of the plane behind the fabric. That is shop practice from field installations, not a figure derived from a test report, and the right coverage for a given room is set with the acoustician or confirmed on a mockup. This layer plus the air depth is what actually absorbs. The fabric is the door, not the absorber.
24V constant voltage strip on aluminum mounting bar, laid out on the centers shown on the drawing. Everything above the fabric from the driver output to the last diode is low voltage. Feed points, re-injection points and channel breaks are drawn, not decided on site. Fixed CCT, tunable white 2700K to 6500K, or RGBW.
Drivers land somewhere a person can reach: a closet, above a cabinet, behind an access hatch. This is a real design constraint and it belongs on the architectural drawings early, not in an RFI later. Control is 0-10V, DALI-2 or DMX, and wireless where the project specifies it. Every driver is labeled to the zone it feeds.
CLIPSO micro-perforated knit polyester with PU coating, approximately 230 g/m2, matte. Cut to the drawing, then clipped in cold and dry. No heat gun, no adhesive, no wet trades. Seamless to 16 ft 8 in (5.1 m) in one direction. The perforation is micro scale and is not visible at normal viewing distance, which is why we never draw or render it as a hole pattern.
We bring the field up, check it for hotspots and dark bands at full output and again at low dim, correct the layout if the field is not flat, then hand over. The fabric unclips and goes back for the life of the space, so a failed strip is a couple of hours of work rather than a ceiling replacement.
Every number below is our shop standard, taken from field practice on South Florida installations. It is not laboratory data and we do not present it as such. Use it to size the build-up, then confirm it on a mockup.
4 in (100 mm) from the LED to the back of the fabric is the absolute minimum and only works with a tight pitch. 6 in (150 mm) is our shop standard. 8 in to 12 in (200 mm to 300 mm) is what we ask for when absorption is the priority, because the depth of the air space behind the fabric is part of how the assembly absorbs. We publish no absorption figures by frequency, so if the room has a target, bring the acoustician in and we will build to their depth. If the structure only gives you 4 in, tell us at design stage. We will change the LED pitch rather than let you find out on site.
Keep the strip pitch at or below the cavity depth. At 6 in of depth we run strips on 6 in centers. At 4 in of depth we tighten to 3 in centers. Above 10 in of depth you can open up to 12 in centers, but prove it on a sample panel first. Run the last strip within 2 in to 3 in of the perimeter and line that return white, or the edge goes dark and the ceiling looks like it is sagging when it is perfectly flat.
An acoustic cavity is darker than a plain light box because the absorber takes away the bounce. Our starting allowance is roughly 25 to 30 percent more LED density than a non acoustic backlit ceiling at the same depth. We have not measured that difference in a lab. It is where we start and the mockup sets the final number. Use white faced absorber. Never leave black or grey material behind a lit field.
24V strip runs 16 ft (5 m) per feed. Anything longer gets center fed or re-injected every 16 ft, or the far end goes visibly dim and warm. Keep secondary home runs under about 25 ft and size the wire for it. Load drivers to 80 percent, not to the label. Every driver group needs its own reachable access point, 24 in x 24 in clear as a working minimum. If there is genuinely nowhere accessible for drivers, that is a problem to solve before the ceiling is drawn, not after it is installed.
Use one LED reel batch and one driver family per continuous lit field. Mixed bins are invisible at full output and obvious at 10 to 20 percent dim, which is exactly where a restaurant or a hotel lobby lives at night. Tell us the dim floor you actually want and we select drivers for it.
Cavity too shallow for the pitch. A strip sitting too close to the fabric at a bend or a hanger. Absorber sagging into the light path or touching the back of the fabric. Unwrapped duct, conduit or a sprinkler drop left in the cavity. A grey or black surface behind the fabric. Mixed LED bins. All six are drawing problems, and all six are cheaper to fix on the shop drawing than after the fabric is in.
The fabric is seamless to 16 ft 8 in (5.1 m) in one direction and can run long in the other. Past that, do not run a fabric joint across a lit field. Break the plane on purpose with a linear light line (AP-305, AP-306, AP-307) or a shadow reveal, and the joint becomes part of the design instead of a punch list item.
Sprinklers, smoke detectors, speakers and air diffusers all need a ring, and every ring reads as a dark disc against a lit field. Coordinate them onto unlit zones or the perimeter on the reflected ceiling plan. Any device that has to sit in the middle of a lit surface should be a deliberate decision drawn early. Sprinkler and detector positions at a membrane ceiling are set by the fire protection engineer and approved by the AHJ. We build to that drawing, we do not set it.
Fabric over a hard deck with nothing behind it does very little for the room. The absorption comes from the backing and the cavity. If the deck runs tight to the fabric across most of the area, say so and we will tell you plainly that the acoustic half of this system is not going to do much there.
We build a 4 ft x 4 ft panel at the final cavity depth, final pitch, final fabric and final CCT, and dim it through its range in front of you. That is how you buy this system honestly. We hold no photometric files and no published absorption report, and a lit mockup answers both questions in the room instead of on paper.
Every other surface in the room is hard, and the ceiling is the only real estate left for absorption.
Rooms that need to be quieter without a visible acoustic panel grid overhead.
Acoustic walls and a lit ceiling from the same shop and the same drawing set. Where the room has a measured acoustic target we build to the acoustician's numbers and treat this as the finish over their build-up, not as a rated product.
A softer sounding room and even light from one surface. Speech privacy between rooms is a partition and plenum question and is not something this ceiling is rated for.
The same build-up on the ceiling and on the walls, sized to the room rather than to a panel module.
Reverberation is the complaint and the ceiling is the surface left to treat it.
We do not publish one, and we will not quote a number we have not paid a lab to measure. Here is what we can tell you. The fabric is micro-perforated, so it is largely acoustically open. Sound passes through it into the cavity and is absorbed by the backing we install there and by the depth of the air space itself, which is why deeper cavities do more for low frequencies. Absorption is a property of the whole build-up, meaning fabric plus air depth plus backing plus how much of the plane is actually backed, so a single number quoted without that build-up would be marketing rather than data. If your project needs a documented figure, we will test the exact assembly you are specifying. Ask us and we will scope it.
No. The perforation is micro scale and part of the knit structure, not a punched hole pattern. From standing height the surface reads as a plain matte fabric ceiling. This is a real difference from perforated metal or perforated gypsum, where the pattern is a visible design element you have to live with. Come see a sample at the Dania Beach shop, or we will send one.
Not on the data we hold. Our ASTM E84 report is per finish on white specimens: gloss FSI 5 / SDI 300, matte FSI 10 / SDI 300, satin FSI 15 / SDI 250. The laboratory assigned no classification. The specimens were not mounted per ASTM E2573, and the test covers the membrane alone rather than a plenum assembly. We hold no UL 2043 and no plenum rating, so we will not tell you it is permitted in a return-air plenum. The acoustic fabric is a different material from a different manufacturer and is not covered by that report at all. Its documentation comes from its manufacturer and we will forward it. If your AHJ needs something specific, tell us what standard and we will tell you straight whether we have it or whether it has to be tested.
To be explicit about the gaps, so nobody finds out at submittal: we hold no NFPA 701, no NFPA 286 and no NFPA 265, no ASTM E2573 mounted-assembly test, no UL 2043 rating, and no Florida Product Approval or Miami-Dade NOA for this assembly.
You give them the build-up and a mockup. We hold no LM-79, LM-80 or IES data and we do not publish lumen or footcandle figures, because we are a fabricator and installer and not a manufacturer with a photometry lab. What we do publish is the strip specification, the cavity depth, the LED pitch, the driver and control platform, and a measured light transmission report for our PVC translucent membrane from Poznan University of Technology by the method of CIE 130-1998. For the acoustic fabric we build a 4 ft x 4 ft lit panel at your final depth, pitch and CCT so your designer can see and meter the real surface. In practice that settles the conversation faster than a file would.
The fabric unclips cold and goes back in. There is no adhesive, no heat and no captive layer, so a technician opens the run, replaces the strip and closes it. That is usually a couple of hours. Drivers never sit above the fabric with no way in. They go in a closet, above a cabinet or behind a hatch, labeled to their zone, and that access location is fixed on the drawings before we fabricate. Membrane warranty is 10 years, LED and electrical is 3 years.
Walls are the same build-up. Frame, absorber, LED field if you want it lit, fabric clipped in. Studios, boardrooms and lounges often get an acoustic wall from us in the same trip as the ceiling, on one drawing set with one crew. On printing, we print on membrane and we do backlit printed graphics, but printing changes both the surface and how the acoustic version behaves, so for an acoustic printed panel we prove it on a sample before it goes into a specification rather than promise it on a web page.
Ask and it goes out, usually within one business day. The general library is at technical downloads.
These are the documents a specifier asks for that we cannot hand over today. They stay listed and empty on purpose. If any of them is a project requirement, tell us early and we will say plainly whether we can commission it or whether the project needs a different material.
Panel manufacturers sell acoustic luminaires as finished products, and whatever the marketing calls them, they are still a tile, a panel or a module. The ceiling arrives as a grid with joints and module lines you have to design around, and the outline is whatever the catalog allows. We cut and bend the frame on our own CNC in Dania Beach, so the acoustic luminous plane can be any outline at any size, on a wall as readily as a ceiling, delivered on one drawing set by one crew with a lit mockup in front of you before anyone commits.
The trade is worth stating plainly, because it runs the other way too. A panel manufacturer with a photometry lab can hand you files we do not have. We hold no LM-79, LM-80 or TM-21 data and publish no IES files for this assembly, and we hold no ASTM C423 report and publish no NRC. What we give you instead is the build-up, the cavity depth, the LED pitch, the driver and control platform, and a 4 ft x 4 ft lit panel at your final settings that you can stand under and meter. See the rest of the range on the lighting systems hub, or compare this against a plain backlit luminous ceiling or a non-lit acoustic ceiling.
Profile cross-sections, dimensions, the lighting document set and the full color chart live in the technical library. CAD files are sent on request, usually within one business day.
View system
Tell us the outline, the deck depth and what the room is doing wrong acoustically. We come back with a build approach, a budget and a lead time, and a 4 ft x 4 ft lit mockup at your final depth, pitch and CCT when the surface has to be proven before it goes in the drawing set.
Share a few details and our team will follow up within one business day.
