Why are soundmasking speakers in the ceiling pointed upward?
While in some office applications, paging or music speakers might be visibly located in ceiling tiles pointing downward, soundmasking speakers are located hidden above the ceiling tiles pointing upward. The reason is to avoid variation between the “hot spots” of soundmasking, that would occur immediately under a downward facing speaker, and the “cold spots” between speaker spans. By pointing the speakers upward the soundmasking is reflected off the upper decking and resonates the entire ceiling cavity evenly, eliminating any harshness or inefficiencies that are characteristic of a downward facing ceiling speaker layouts. Since the same uniformity is preferable in paging and background music, incorporating these functions into an inconspicuous soundmasking system is ideal.