Inlaid acrylic sheet for uplit shots

I'm building a tabletop photography platform. It will have a deep drawer at the bottom and a couple of open shelves for storing stands, The top has an opening to allow me inlay frosted or translucent white acrylic panels and I want to add a light source for uplit shots. I may also use it as a traditional light box for sorting slides. I've got a couple of things to work out.

1. What kind of lighting would work best for this? My main light sources are speed lights combined with soft boxes, umbrellas etc. Can I use this approach for uplighting?
2. If I need a continuous light source, what type of source?
3. If it's continuous, roughly what distance do I need between the light and the acrylic panel? I need that info to determine where to place the stop shelf so that the light source is not too far away given the loss lights through the acrylic.

Grateful for any advice.