With the popularity of in ceiling speakers increasing in the past few years many people are looking to install them. You can use in-ceiling speakers with Alexa, Google Home and other smart assistants and control them with voice commands. I look at all the options in the rest of this article so that you can choose the best method for you depending on your circumstances.
If you are looking to install new in ceiling speakers and use them with Alexa or other smart assistants, as mentioned above there are 3 basic methods that will allow you to do this.
You can easily connect other devices, phones, tablets etc and stream audio via your favourite apps. Using Bluetooth won’t impact or slow down your home Wifi /internet connection. Most Bluetooth ceiling speakers are ‘passive’ and need to be connected to an amplifier for power. But there are an increasing number of ‘active’ Bluetooth ceiling speakers on the market recently. These include an amplifier which means you don’t have to run cables from the speakers to a separate amp/ receiver.
If you choose ‘active’ Bluetooth ceiling speakers, the built in amplifier can connect to your lighting circuit for power, which means you don’t have to install additional cabling in the ceiling. If you want to have a whole-house system where you control all the speakers centrally then you will need to look at Wifi or wired setups. If the device you are connecting to the speakers doesn’t have Bluetooth 5.0 or higher then you will be limited to just 10 metres.
It is worth checking your phone and other devices that you might want to use to control the speakers to see if you have Bluetooth 5.0 or higher. If you’ve ever connected your phone to an Alexa or other smart speaker you have probably already experienced this. There are a lot of disgruntled customer reviews on the internet regarding 4.0 speakers with many people complaining about the sound cracking up because of the lack of range.
WiFi enabled ceiling speakers connect up to your home Wifi network and can be controlled with Alexa, Google Home and other smart assistants the same as Bluetooth speakers.
With Wifi speakers, because it’s multi-room, you can take advantage of the broadcast / drop-in functionality of smart assistants like Alexa to make announcements to the whole house. They integrate directly with streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music and because they connect to your Wifi network you can setup a multi-room system with them.
This kind of setup is usually recommended if you want to use your speakers with a home cinema where latency can cause the picture and sound to be out of sync. Using a wired connection means it won’t affect your home Wifi bandwidth.
That might not sound like much, but it can be a frustration when you first have to turn it on and wait for a few seconds before you can issue voice commands.
Best way to use Google home and in ceiling speakers? : homeautomation
I have a few Google homes and they work well but I’d like to say “okay Google play X in garage” and have it play in the garage over the speakers. If Google home had Bluetooth I’d be a lot easier but that’s not the case.
Audio Volt Bluetooth 5.0 Stereo Speaker System with In-Ceiling Speakers – Alexa & Google Assistant Compatible
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Please make sure all items relating to the product are returned, including manuals and cables. Items received with a post date 30 days after your requested return will NOT be eligible for refund.
Please note: Our returns policy is quite straightforward but there are a number of conditions that we ask our customers to comply with before applying: We always refund the payment according to how the original purchase was made and aim to do so within 72hrs of the return being received by us. Replacement products are dispatched immediately after the returned goods have been received and accepted by Audio Volt. Items that develop a fault within 30 days of delivery are eligible for a replacement or a refund.
Wireless Ceiling Speakers for Smart Homes | NetXL
Hook up your Lithe Audio ceiling speakers to your home WiFi and enjoy instant usability via your Amazon Alexa or Google Nest smart devices. When your 40th or 50th rolls round, though, go ahead and play back over every speaker in the house, allowing your guests to roam freely without ever losing the party atmosphere. Create a romantic mood-scene where Spotify softly plays back your favourite songs while your smart bulbs soften the lights to a warm, rosy glow. Create a pre-club party scene where the blinds come down, the lights turn various shades of loud and all your favourite club anthems help you get the night started right.
Until the robot waiter can mix and bring you your drinks for you, Control4 and Lithe Audio’s wireless ceiling speakers make for the perfect smart home experience.
Bluetooth Ceiling Speakers
At K&B Audio we have a wide range of ceiling speaker systems with Bluetooth that cater for different rooms, budgets and sound quality. You can simply connect it to a local socket outlet or into your lighting circuit, pair your smartphone and play your music!
These types of bluetooth speaker systems offer amazing value for money with great sound quality and a whole host of useful features. Next up is a bluetooth ceiling speaker system with a wall mounted amplifier and control panel such as the popular Systemline E50. This system uses passive ceiling speakers connected to an in wall amplifier that also features a Bluetooth receiver and in some cases an FM/DAB Radio (such as the Systemline E100). These will have a small standalone amplifier that you’ll need to cite in a kitchen cupboard or on a TV unit but they feature powerful HiFi quality sound, digital optical audio connections and often subwoofer outputs. Sound quality is excellent and you can stream any content from your phone including internet radio, music services like Spotify and much more.
Top 5 In-Ceiling Speakers for your Bathroom
If you’ve landed on this blog, you probably enjoy showering to your favourite songs as part of your morning routine. Maybe you’re looking to start from scratch or improve your existing system and wondering how to bring great quality sound to the bathroom, particularly in the form of ceiling speakers. Some brands have created waterproof shower speakers that sit on your wall using a suction cup and while these are widely available and affordable, we believe there’s a better option – mainly because the batteries need to be replaced regularly, the sound quality is limited at louder volumes and if the wall gets too wet, they have a tendency to fall off. However, as bathrooms tend to be the smallest rooms of the home, ceiling space can be limited, especially with lights and extractor fans.
The great thing about Lithe Audio is that they are active speakers that just need plugging into mains power from a socket, or via your lighting circuit. Being steam and moisture resistant, it can cope in a bathroom environment, no problem at all, as long as you do not position in a shower enclosure or get it wet.
Out of all the passive ceiling speakers, the Monitor Audio range, in our opinion, provides some of the best value for money for the sound you can achieve. Similar to the C165-T2, the CCM664SR from British heritage brand Bowers & Wilkins is a step up, if you’re looking for extra premium quality sound in your bathroom. The CCM600 range benefits from a unique quick dog clamping system for seamless install and can be upgraded to a higher model in the CCM600 range effortlessly by removing the speaker from the cage and replacing with a better model – great for future proofing! Bowers & Wilkins are known for their crystal-clear vocal clarity and tonality and if you’re into many different genres of music, we feel the CCM664SR offers the complete solution.
This passive, waterproof ceiling speaker sounds phenomenal when used as a pair and the quality of engineering really comes across. The great thing about this model is that because it is IP55 rated, it is waterproof and can be fitted inside a shower enclosure, above a bathtub or wherever you would like in your bathroom.
Being a Monitor Audio speaker, they are extremely well-built which makes for a crystal-clear sound. Power them with the Sonos Amp and unlock the ability to tune the ceiling speakers to your own bathroom, so they are perfectly optimised to your room’s architecture. For those people, we’ve devised a list of our favourite Sonos speakers that would work well in a bathroom. This speaker can pump out some impressive volume and is the most portable speaker in the Sonos range, conveniently supporting both WiFi and Bluetooth, 10 hour battery and Alexa and Google Assistant built right in, making it a great option for the bathroom.
It works in a very similar fashion to the Roam but being larger in footprint, you do need to find more surface space for it but in return, it’s capable of filling large bathrooms effortlessly and being listened to at much higher volumes. It’s a great solution if you want the ability to take advantage of the Sonos eco-system but not have a speaker that permanently requires mains power.
Many customers run this from a spur in the wall leading back to a socket from an adjoining room. In which case, definitely consider the best-seller option, the Sonos Roam for the quickest and most convenient solution for your bathroom. You may want to consider going for a passive ceiling speaker such as the Monitor Audio C165-T2 or Bowers & Wilkins CCM664SR powered by a separate Amp for a much more superior listening experience.
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