Media wall panels are the finish on a built-out TV wall — increasingly acoustic slat panelling: timber slats over a felt backer, with the felt visible in the gaps. They dress the wall, soften echo off a large hard surface and hide cabling. They do not soundproof it. Plan the TV bracket, sockets and any fire's clearances before fitting.
What a media wall is, and what the panels do
A media wall is a wall built out in front of the structural one, usually a stud frame, to carry a wall-mounted television and whatever else the room asks for: an electric fire, recesses for a soundbar and console, shelving, and the cabling that would otherwise trail down the plaster. The panelling is the finish applied to that frame, and slat panelling has become the defining one — which is why media wall panels and TV wall panels now mostly mean slats.
Acoustically, a media wall is a large, flat, hard surface pointed straight at the seating. A flat screen fires thin, forward-facing audio, often with a soundbar directly beneath it, and the sound that strikes the wall around the screen returns to you a fraction of a second after the direct sound, which smears speech and makes the area sound boomy. A slatted panel works on both halves of that: the acoustic felt exposed in the gaps absorbs, while the slat faces scatter some of what reaches them. The mechanism is set out in how acoustic panels work, and the specific case of the wall behind a screen in acoustic panels behind a TV.
The felt shows between the slats — that is the construction
It is worth knowing exactly what you are buying before it is on the wall. The panel we supply is a 6 mm MDF face cut into vertical slats over a 3 mm high-density acoustic felt backer, 9 mm overall. The gaps between the slats are not shadow gaps and they are not hollow: what you see in them is the felt itself. That is not a defect and it is not a compromise, it is how the panel absorbs — the felt has to be open to the room to do anything at all. On a media wall, where the panelling is the thing everyone looks at, it is the single detail most worth seeing in person before you commit.
We do not publish a slat width, a gap width, a pitch or a slat depth for this panel. Those figures are unconfirmed, and we will not estimate them from a photograph or a render — on a finish this visible, an invented dimension is worse than an absent one. What is confirmed is the range and the sizes: 18 decors across nine colour families — black, white, grey, oak, walnut, wood, beige, stone and green — in 600 mm and 1000 mm widths and 2440 mm and 2750 mm lengths. Browse them on our panel range, or narrow by colour — the walnut, grey and wood families each have their own page. If the look matters, and here it does, order samples and put them against your own light and your own screen.
Brackets, recesses and sockets: plan the cuts before you panel
Start with the arithmetic, because it decides the joints. At 600 mm wide, a 3 m media wall is five panels; at 1000 mm it is three. A 2440 mm panel suits a nominal 2.4 m ceiling with a little to trim, and 2750 mm covers a taller room. Where a panel has to be cut to width, you cut across the backing in the gaps between the slats rather than through a slat, and the cut edge exposes the MDF core, so it wants sealing or trimming to match — the method, including notching around sockets and switches, is in can you cut acoustic slat panels.
The TV bracket is the part people get wrong. A 9 mm panel of MDF and felt carries nothing: the bracket must pass through the panelling and fix into the studs or a solid substrate behind it, so the frame needs noggins or a ply pad set where the bracket lands — decided before the panels go up, not after. The same goes for first fix. Sockets, HDMI, aerial and the soundbar feed should be positioned, and any recess formed, while the wall is still a frame. Every one of those is a cut in a finished panel if you leave it late, and cuts in a slat face are the joints you will notice. The general sequence is covered in how to install acoustic slat panels.
Around a fire, the appliance's clearances decide — not the panel
This is the constraint to take seriously, and the one where we will not give you a number. Timber-based panelling is a combustible finish, and a media wall commonly puts it directly above and around a heat source. Every heat-producing appliance is supplied with installation instructions that state its own minimum clearances to combustible material, and those distances differ by model — an inset electric fire and a freestanding stove are not the same problem, and two electric fires are not necessarily the same problem either. The figure that governs your wall comes from that appliance's manual. Do not take it from a panel supplier, including us: we publish no clearance figure, because the clearance is not a property of the panel.
If the appliance burns fuel rather than running on electricity, it is also a Building Regulations matter on top of the manufacturer's instructions. In England, Approved Document J covers the air supply, the discharge of combustion products and the protection of the building for solid fuel, gas and oil appliances. Electric fires sit outside its scope, which is exactly why their installation instructions carry the whole weight.
Two related points. First, heat from the kit itself: an amplifier, console or streaming box sealed into a tight, unventilated recess will run its fans harder and can shut down, so keep an air path top and bottom of any niche and keep the equipment reachable. Second, reaction to fire: we hold no test report for this panel, so we state no fire classification for it and you should not infer one. If your project needs a rated lining — an escape route, a building over 11 m, anywhere a specifier sets the standard — read what no test report means when buying panels and are acoustic wood panels a fire risk, then specify against a document rather than against a claim.
Panels treat the room, they do not soundproof it
The honest limit, stated plainly, because a media wall is where it gets confused most often. Slat panels absorb sound inside your room: less echo around the screen, clearer dialogue, a tighter-sounding space. They do not add the mass a wall needs to block sound passing through it, so a panelled media wall will not stop a film being heard in the bedroom above, in the next room, or by a neighbour through a party wall. Nine millimetres of MDF and felt is not a barrier and nothing about the finish changes that.
Keeping sound from travelling between rooms is sound isolation — heavy construction, decoupling and airtight seals — and it is a different job with different materials, set out in absorption versus soundproofing. Worth knowing before you build: the stud frame of a media wall is one of the rare moments you have the wall open and could address isolation properly if that is your actual problem. Panels are the right tool for how the room sounds to you; they were never the tool for what the neighbours hear.
A media wall is one wall — and we sell pallets
A media wall is a handful of panels: five at 600 mm across a 3 m wall, three at 1000 mm. Our minimum order is one pallet — 75 panels, roughly 110–206 m² depending on the size chosen. We are a UK trade supplier, we hold no stock in this country, and we have no stockists to send you to. So if you are panelling one media wall in your own home, you cannot buy from us, and we would rather tell you that here than take the enquiry and waste your week. Buy from a retailer that sells by the panel.
The page still earns its place if it saved you a mistake: get the bracket backing in before the panels, get the clearances from the fire's own manual, and know that the felt shows in the gaps. If, on the other hand, you are a retailer, a fit-out contractor or a developer doing media walls repeatedly, a pallet is a sane unit rather than an obstacle — that is the buyer we are built for. Pallet and truck quantities explained sets out what actually fits and ships, and compare puts the decors side by side.
Frequently asked questions
Do media wall panels help the sound, or are they just decorative?
Both, within the room. A media wall is a large hard surface facing the seating, and slat panelling absorbs a share of the sound that would otherwise bounce straight back off it, so dialogue is easier to follow and the area sounds less boomy. The felt exposed in the gaps does the absorbing while the slats scatter some of the rest. The improvement is to how your own room sounds — it does not carry to other rooms.
Can you fit slat panels around an electric fire on a media wall?
Only to the clearances the fire's own installation instructions set. Timber-based panelling is a combustible finish, and every heat-producing appliance specifies its own minimum distances to combustible material, which vary by model. Take the figure from the appliance's manual, not from a panel supplier. If the fire burns fuel rather than electricity, Approved Document J also applies in England, covering protection of the building for solid fuel, gas and oil appliances.
Can you mount a TV on acoustic slat panels?
Yes, but the panel carries none of the weight. The bracket must pass through the panelling and fix into the studs or a solid substrate behind it, so put noggins or a ply pad where the bracket will land while the wall is still a frame. Plan the bracket position, sockets and cable routes before the panels go on, so you are not cutting a finished slat face afterwards.
Does the felt show between the slats?
Yes — that is the construction. The panel is a 6 mm MDF face cut into vertical slats over a 3 mm acoustic felt backer, and the felt is visible in every gap. It has to be open to the room to absorb anything. On a media wall the panelling is the focal point of the room, so it is worth ordering a sample and looking at the gaps in your own light before committing.
Will media wall panels soundproof the room?
No. They absorb sound inside the room to reduce echo around the screen; they do not add the mass needed to stop sound passing through the wall. A panelled media wall will not stop a film being heard upstairs or next door. That is sound isolation — a matter of construction, mass and airtight seals — and an absorptive finish cannot provide it, whatever the coverage.