Ceiling Speakers for Shops and Cafes | Falcon Security Systems

Getting background music right in a commercial space

Background sound in a shop or a cafe has one measurable goal: even coverage at a level that lets people talk. If customers at one table are raising their voices while another table cannot hear the music at all, the system has failed regardless of the speaker quality.

Evenness comes from speaker spacing, not speaker quality. The rule of thumb for a standard ceiling height is speakers spaced at roughly one and a half times the height above the listener. Wider spacing than that gives loud spots directly under each speaker and quiet gaps between them, which is the most common problem we are asked to fix.

For a cafe, more small ceiling speakers at low volume will always beat two larger ones turned up. It costs a little more in speakers and cable and it is the single decision that determines whether the space sounds professional.

Zoning is the other thing worth specifying early. A cafe usually wants a different level indoors and outdoors, and a shop often wants to make an announcement in one area without it going everywhere. Both need separate amplifier channels, which is cheap to plan and expensive to retrofit.