Welcome to class everyone!
Part of TSV’s mission is to provide people with not only great audio/visual rental and installation, but to also educate people on the things that we in the A/V biz take as routine.
And with that, we bring you today’s lesson:
Today we will be giving you a brief how-to demonstration on installing in-ceiling speakers.
Here, Joel demonstrates this type of install. On this particular day, Joel is using the JBL Control 24 4″ in-ceiling speakers.
So, these little guys are going up into the ceiling and in this case, a drop ceiling. But before we can even get the to the speakers, the wiring needs to be done:
Since these speakers are not self-powered, they require an amplifier to power these little guys up.
1. Low-voltage speaker cable needs to be run out from the terminals of the amp, up to the ceiling (as unobtrusively as possible!) with long leads of the cable going out to your speaker location(s).
2. Then the necessary wiring between each “daisy-chained” speaker needs to be run out between each speaker location, removing the necessary ceiling tiles for routing the cable and position the speakers.
3. Now that the wire is run out, holes needs to be cut in the ceiling tiles that the speakers will be installed into. This is done with a special circle-saw drill bit and a template, to provide the perfect cut!
4. Next you need to wire up the speaker with the cable that was run out from the amplifier by stripping the ends of the cable and connecting them to the “IN+” (red) and “IN-” (black) of the connector block inside the speaker. If an additional speaker is going to be run through this, the next set of cable needs to be stripped and connected to “THRU+” (red) and “THRU-” (black) of the same connector block.
5. At this point, you want to test your connection by having music or some other audio device sent through the system (i.e. connecting an iPod through a mixer, into the amp, and out to the speakers). This step is critical, because you wouldn’t want to re-wire all these speaks if you don’t have to!
6. Once sound has been established, the speaker is ready to be permanently installed. The speaker wire is fed through a strain relief to keep the wires from pulling out of the speaker after it is installed.
7. The speaker is then fed back through the hole in the ceiling tile, where, just above, Joel has placed a track frame that will stabilize and support the speaker.
8. A series of set screws are then tightened to bring hidden clamps on the speaker (that are now above the ceiling tile) downward to set the speaker securely and evenly on the track frame.
9. Place the grille cover on the speaker and voila! You have just installed in-ceiling speakers!
10. Enjoy the tunes!
Collin Aerobics
TSV Sound & Vision 