Overhead Paging, PA and Background Music on UniFi Networks

Networked Audio for Your Business

CloudCentric is a managed IT provider in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, serving businesses across Charleston and the Lowcountry. You can reach us by phone at (844) 422-7000. Talk phones, paging adapters, PoE speakers, cameras and horn speakers all run off PoE switches, so a page or a horn needs one network cable to each device and no separate speaker wiring back to the office. A PoE switch on battery backup keeps phones and PoE paging speakers powered through a short power cut.

Paging and Intercom from UniFi Talk Desk Phones

UniFi Talk phones page each other natively: a Talk group is created, the users allowed to page are given Outbound Paging, and a page goes to every phone in the group. From a G3 Talk phone, a page is sent by opening Contacts, holding the group and tapping Page; from any other Talk phone, by dialling *0* and the group's extension. Talk phones also place intercom calls that the other phone answers automatically on mute, and intercom can be turned off per user. Talk phones sold subscription-unlocked make internal calls between phones with no Talk subscription at all. In a school, office or store, front-desk staff page a zone from the desk phone they already use for calls.

SIP Speakers and Multi-Zone Overhead Paging

Overhead paging through ceiling or horn speakers uses a SIP paging speaker or a SIP paging adapter, added to UniFi Talk as a third-party device with its own extension. Installers have reported PoE SIP ceiling speakers, such as the Grandstream GSC3516, paging one area when its extension is dialled from a Talk phone; this is a community-reported setup, not a Ubiquiti-documented one. Several SIP speakers placed in one Talk group do not page together, because the first to answer takes the call, so multi-zone paging runs through a paging adapter or speakers that use multicast. In a warehouse or plant, horns cover the dock and yard while ceiling or SIP speakers cover the office, break room and floor, each zone paged on its own or all together.

Algo 8301 SIP Paging Adapter and Scheduled Announcements

The Algo 8301 SIP paging adapter registers with a phone system, is powered over PoE, and sends pages by multicast to up to 50 zones, each chosen by its own extension or a keypad digit. The Algo 8301 has a line output and a relay for an existing paging amplifier, so the horns and ceiling speakers already in a building can be kept. The Algo 8301 includes a scheduler that plays bells, tones and recorded announcements from uploaded WAV or MP3 files, keeping time from internet time servers. School class-change bells, shift-change tones in a plant and closing announcements in a store all run from the same kind of schedule. The Algo 8301 has an input for background music that pauses during a page or a scheduled bell and resumes afterwards.

UniFi AI Speakers and Protect Integration

The UniFi AI Horn Speaker (UP-AI-Horn-Speaker) is a 120 dB horn rated IP66 for outdoor use from -40 to 140 °F, powered by PoE+ and mounted on a wall or a pole from 1 to 2.5 inches across. The AI Horn Speaker listed at $299 on the US UniFi store on 2026-10-26. The AI Horn Speaker is managed in UniFi Protect, where Alarm Manager plays a tone through it when a camera sees a person or vehicle, a line is crossed or a sensor trips, optionally only on a schedule. A talk function in the UniFi Protect app sends a live voice through the AI Horn Speaker, so a yard, loading dock or car park can be spoken to from a phone.

The UniFi AI Speaker (UP-AI-Speaker) is an indoor 100 dB PoE++ speaker for surface or flush mounting, managed in UniFi Protect, listed at $199 on the US UniFi store on 2026-10-26. Ubiquiti's own guidance on vape detection names an announcement on a nearby AI Speaker as one response to a restroom vape alert from the UniFi air quality sensor. Paging from Talk phones to the AI Horn Speaker or AI Speaker is not a documented UniFi feature; Talk paging reaches those areas through a SIP paging adapter or SIP speakers instead.

Background Music with UniFi Play

The UniFi PowerAmp (UPL-Amp) drives 130 W per channel at 8 ohms or 260 W per channel at 4 ohms, with HDMI eARC and RCA line inputs and a subwoofer output. One UniFi PowerAmp drives up to six UniFi in-ceiling or in-wall speakers, three on each channel wired in parallel. The UniFi PowerAmp listed at $599 on the US UniFi store on 2026-10-26, shown as out of stock with no restock date. Some items on the US UniFi store show a higher surcharge-included price beside the list price at checkout, such as $703 for the PowerAmp on 2026-10-26. The UniFi In-Ceiling Speaker has a 6.5-inch woofer and a pivoting 1-inch tweeter, handles 130 W at 8 ohms, covers 90 degrees, and needs a ceiling opening about 8.1 inches across; it listed at $149 on the US UniFi store on 2026-10-26. The UniFi In-Wall Speaker has the same drivers in a rectangular frame and listed at $179 on the US UniFi store on 2026-10-26.

The UniFi PoE Audio Port (UPL-Port) streams music to an existing amplifier over RCA, optical or HDMI eARC, is powered over PoE, and listed at $199 on the US UniFi store on 2026-10-26. PowerAmps and PoE Audio Ports are controlled from the UniFi Play app and grouped into zones of up to 32 devices. The PowerAmp and PoE Audio Port play AirPlay and Spotify Connect and include Soundtrack Your Brand, a music service sold for businesses.

Safety Regulations, Alarms and Emergency Evacuation

OSHA's employee alarm rule requires an emergency alarm to be heard above ambient noise by every employee in the area and to be distinctive; where a paging system also carries the employee alarm, emergency messages take priority over everything else. Under the same OSHA rule, a workplace with 10 or fewer employees may raise an alarm by direct voice if everyone can hear it. Fire alarm voice evacuation stays on the building's listed fire alarm system: NFPA 72 requires speakers and controls listed for emergency voice evacuation, and a business paging system is not a substitute for it. However, UniFi Access can take a signal from the fire alarm panel and unlock every door for evacuation, while the fire panel itself stays the listed system.