What Speakers to use in a bar/restaurant environment

Over the years I've seen a lot of bars with Bose 901s hung from the ceiling. They go loud and are pretty durable, and you can get an older system fairly cheap nowadays.

I was at Chipotle last night and I saw that they had quite a bit of Mirage Omnisat V2 speakers mounted upside down high up on the walls and in the lower ceiling joists. The volume level was fine but I don't know how loud it could have gone.

i second the mirage omnis--i've heard 'em in (acoustically challenged) restaurant environments and they sound damn good. the real advantage to them is that they have that 360 degree dispersion--they really don't have dead spots. they're also seemingly impervious to placement. i'm seeing 'em in more and more national chain stores, which suggests that they do have commercial application.

My $0.02 worth:

1- For a 3000 ft2 space you are probably going to want to distribute speakers over the space. One pair of speakers will be too loud adjacent to the speakers and not loud enough at the "edges".

2- Suspending the speakers from the ceiling is OK for background music but sounds like crap for anything else. Can you consider wall mount speakers? You could ever use several pairs of Magnepan MMWs and subs throughout the space.

3- I like the active speaker idea IF you can manage the AC power requirements. If not look at PMC and Westlake Audio - not cheap but great stuff designed for just this type of application.

4- I would seriously consider hiring a professional to measure your space and configure this for you. IMHO they will earn their fee and then some.

5- Remember that even if you get it right your space is going to sound completely different empty than it will full of people trying to talk over the music.

Br3098,
As a former Tympani !D owner I have thought about the MMW's, crazy as that might sound to some. I WILL need probably 8-12 individual speakers to get a full sound without loud and soft spots, so to speak.

As far as getting a pro to do an analysis we are located far from anyone with that type of expertise, sadly. That's an option I would try if someone were available in the area.
The Mirage idea is also something I gave thought to a year ago, and as they are made in Canada, like I , it would be a nice fit.
Great info from everyone. Really appreciated.
B