I need to come up with an audio solution for our new meeting room and I thought of the idea that we can put 4 speakers up in each corner of the ceiling for sound. I have been trying to find speakers on ncix.com or at Bestbuy, Futureshop, The Source, and I cannot find what I am looking for. These 4 speakers will communicate with a dedicated PC in the room. Am I better off going with a wired solution?
2 Answers
I don't have direct experience with wireless speakers, but I can offer the following reasoning on why you should prefer wired speakers:
Most of the frequency spectrum is allocated to licensed users. Products like wireless speakers, bluetooth headsets and WiFi run in the unlicensed ISM bands of 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz and 5.7 GHz. There isn't a lot of bandwidth to begin with. The situation is made worse with lots of WiFi networks, bluetooth mice and various other gadgets. In a meeting room situation, all these devices are likely to be present and competing for limited bandwidth.
Wiring up your speakers will cost more, possibly a lot more, but it is an expense that you can amortize over the entire lifetime of the conference room. Wireless may be cheap, but the frustration of having the speakers go out during a critical presentation might overrule the initial cost savings.
Wiring speakers around a room is very cheap and simple to do, and will help prevent EM interference issues, which could easily happen with wireless speakers, as the frequency ranges typically used are filled with comms from all manner of personal electronic devices.
I would suggest running speaker cable to those corners - if you have a floating ceiling it will be very easy, but even running cable along the skirting then up each corner can be inconspicuous.