If you have limited desktop space, or just prefer a clutter-free look in your conferencing environment, try a ceiling mountable solution like a Phoenix Audio Smart Spider (MT503). Below is a “How To” Guide in order to get the most out of your space!

Ceiling Bracket (MT334)

For optimal performance, use the Phoenix Audio Ceiling Bracket (MT334) and make sure units are mounted flush against the ceiling (or any surface).

Coverage Distance

Different rooms have different acoustic characteristics, however, in an *average room with nine foot ceilings, we recommend to have ceiling mounted units no farther than eight horizontal feet away from a participant. This means that each unit should cover about a 16 foot diameter below it.

Ceiling Mount Image

Larger Rooms

If your room is larger than 16 feet, use multiple units and place them as such so that no person is more than eight feet away from standing below a unit. This can be done using our daisy chaining feature.

Reverberant Rooms

If a room has very poor acoustics and is reverberant (glass walls, marble floors, little-to-no furniture, etc.), you might have to place units closer to participants than the recommended eight feet. In this type of scenario, you should use more units to provide full room coverage.

High Ceilings

If your ceiling is higher than nine feet, place the ceiling mounted units closer to each other – note that in a normal room we recommend a distance of eight horizontal feet, which equates to about 9.5 linear feet from a participant’s mouth to the unit. This means that if your ceilings are 12 feet high, you should place your units about 5 horizontal feet away from participants.

AC Vents

Our Spider units are designed to work in environments with air conditioning noise, however, make sure that there aren’t any AC vents blowing directly into a unit’s microphones. This can be done by placing units one to two tiles away from any vent or by redirecting vent airflow away from a unit.

Placing Multiple Units

When using multiple units to cover a room, place the units towards the center of the room as opposed to around the edges – it is always better when units are in front of participants vs. behind them.

Ceiling Mounting Multiple Units Image

* An “average room” is defined as a typical office conference room. It is expected to have nine foot dropped ceilings, wall-to-wall carpeting, no more than one or two glass walls, some AC noise, no heavy machinery/traffic noise, a few pictures and artifact coving the walls, and some furniture filling the space. Anything that deviates from this description would classify the room as either acoustically treated or reverberant.  

 

Download the Ceiling Mounting “How To” Guide in a PDF form here.