Thinking that in a movie theater, the center speaker is behind the screen. If you look closely at the screen material, you will see that it is perforated with fine holes.
Similarly there are a lot of banner and billboard surface materials (media) that are perforated for one reason or another. If you could source one of these and then print on it with an inkjet (which has no mass unlike paints applied with brushes and palette knives) you might have something that both looks and sounds good.
Might look in the yellow pages for companies specializing in interior design applications as well as companies specializing in large scale printing...
Then stretch the final piece over a frame filled with your sound absorbing material. You would probably want a deeper frame (stretcher bar) then normal so you can get more masterial in.
Also do a search for John Risch here and on Audio Asylum. He's done a lot of great posts on DIY projects like this and may have already solved this problem.
I am sure a cost effective solution is out there - sorry I can't point you any more precisely.
Similarly there are a lot of banner and billboard surface materials (media) that are perforated for one reason or another. If you could source one of these and then print on it with an inkjet (which has no mass unlike paints applied with brushes and palette knives) you might have something that both looks and sounds good.
Might look in the yellow pages for companies specializing in interior design applications as well as companies specializing in large scale printing...
Then stretch the final piece over a frame filled with your sound absorbing material. You would probably want a deeper frame (stretcher bar) then normal so you can get more masterial in.
Also do a search for John Risch here and on Audio Asylum. He's done a lot of great posts on DIY projects like this and may have already solved this problem.
I am sure a cost effective solution is out there - sorry I can't point you any more precisely.