How to turn a ceiling into a sound system

Why the ceiling is the right plane

It is clear, continuous, central, and it stays at roughly equal distance from every point in the room. No other surface combines those four properties, and that is what makes it the most even diffusion surface in a space.

What the overhead position brings

The sound comes down towards listeners without meeting furniture or standing people. The acoustic shadows created by a source at head height disappear simply because the source is no longer at that height.

The two ways of going about it

Making the facing itself vibrate, or building a source into the plenum. The first gives a very wide emitting surface, the second keeps an identifiable source, and the choice depends on the effect sought.

What the plenum must allow

Access, a cable route and a solid fixing. Those three points are decided with the ceiling setting out and not afterwards, exactly as for lighting or for a heating system.

Living alongside the other functions

Heating, lighting, acoustics and sound occupy the same volume. Treating those functions together while the ceiling is open costs markedly less than coming back for each one, and avoids opening it twice.

What to check first

The rigidity of the substrate and the absence of parasitic vibration. A flexible ceiling or a badly fixed framework produces noises of its own, and no electronic adjustment corrects a mechanical fault. A hand laid flat on the facing during a track is enough to feel whether the structure follows the signal or adds something to it.

The plaster integrated version is described on its page, and the product on the Magic Speaker page.

What 360 degree diffusion changes in a room

A ceiling that becomes the source of sound does not behave like a pair of speakers. Three pages go into this in detail:360 degree diffusion, getting around obstacles and even sound.