Has anyone played at a hotel/large pub/small club type venue (with roughly a 10ft ceiling) which has used only Ceiling speakers.

Now, I know that many ceiling speakers are tacky, midrangey, PA/tannoy loudspeakers, however, several of the notable makes, including JBL are designing some substantial full range drivers.

My regular venue, which it looks like I'll be with for 2 years definately, 5 years+ likely, is asking me to produce a shopping list of install items for one of their function rooms.

One problem which they have is music levels escaping the function room and reaching non-function guests, this happens mainly in the summer when the guests open the fire doors, and guests have their bedroom windows open. I know that one tried & tested method of sound control is to have several small speakers at regular intervals around the dancefloor, rather than 4(or 6 or 8) each side of the disco. Works a treat on floor based speakers, but the wiring can get in the way.

Hence, Im looking at ceiling speakers, either with their own amp, and compressor/ limiter hidden away, with a pair of input sockets mounted on a socket panel down near the dancefloor - maybe with a pair of really rare connectors on so that other passing bands and rogues wont be able to use them.

Similar wallsocket ideas are likely to include lighting for overhead ceiling lights etc.

But ceiling speakers, anyone used/heard them used at disco levels?

Ceiling speakers, however substantial were only meant to provide Background Music, the reason being that to produce a good bass response at high power requires a ported cabinet. Something which these types often don't have.

Some of the more expensive cabs have a back cover which fits over the rear of the speaker and adds a bit of depth to the music, but I don't think that you'd ever get the quality you need for Disco work.

For a similar effect, with a better response, try banks of small conventional Background Music Speakers such as the JBL Control series. Control 1's and 5's are small speakers with exceptional quality and handling for their size (Control 1 has a 5" cone and 100W RMS Power handling!). On their own or in a pair - they wouldn't do much, but if you place several of them angled around the dancefloor at ceiling height, then you get surprisingly good music coverage on the dancefloor from a few 100 watts of Amplifier Power

Gazza.... will ask del about this when he comes in....... ceiling speakers/hidden speakers are increasingly popular and are currently being fitted into many prestige venues including restaurants/bars/hotels... and they have come on a long way since the old background musack type speakers to which I think crispy refers!

Gary, has the venue got a suspended ceiling? ie how much space (if any is above)?

If there space to fly speakers?

Cheezy

Ceiling speakers I don't think will be up to the job but there are many small PA speakers from HZ, JBL etc, both active and passive that will do the job. I would rather have 10 smaller speaker around the room then 6 large ones at one end.

Talking of speaker I was talking to a mate who does installs, bothprivate and commercial, and he was telling me about a house he has worked in, he installed a plasma, and it took him 3 days because they obvoiusly hid all wiring, the controls for the system were at the other end of the house and the speakers, which were ceiling, were motorised and 'came down' when the master heard the input, and the other 5 were slaves, then if there was no input for 5 minutes to allow for classicial music they would fold up again. £500 each speaker, the master was £600 and the TV was £5000 plus three days labour to fit.

Hello, its the invisible woman off the fast show here!

Ceiling and hidden speakers these days are more "up to the job" than a lot of dj systems.... and Im only saying it because del fits them for top end venues. He actually works for one of the major installation companies of sound/entertainment systems in the uk. The only problem is, they are probably out of the price range of most mobile djs.

I agree that older in-house surroundsound systems are pretty dia... but thats not the case today.

Behringer do a half decent little studio monitor. Cant remember the modelnumber, but they are very efficient.