I saw a fire lite panel that was located at the entrance to a restroom, I dont remember the model number,
but I know it was voice evac because the building had SpectrAlert classic speaker/strobes.
Honestly, I can’t remember any panels being in an out of normal spot. I know a long time ago when I was touring colleges and in the dorm I was touring the panel (Cerberus Pyrotronics MXL) and all of it’s components (power supplies, NAC extensions, etc.) was out in the hallway of the lowest level. It wasn’t near a main exit or anything and it was almost like a basement. It is kind of odd that it wasn’t in an electrical/mechanical room somewhere though.
I’ve never actually seen this particular installation myself (website and pictures obviously aren’t mine), but a panel mounted above a suspended ceiling is definitely the most baffling location I’ve heard of for such a device.
Sometimes this can happen if a room gets repurposed. At the elementary school not too far from my house, they have a Simplex 4207 fire alarm panel in a small copier/teacher prep room.
Reason being, that room used to be the associate principal’s office when the school was renovated in 1978 (originally built in 1896 and 1918).
Right outside the room is the system annunciator (one of those old rectangular Simplex annunciators with the lettered “block” zone indicators from the 1970s), which currently is in a totally random location. There used to be a set of doors right near it leading to outside, as that used to be the main entrance area. This explains why the annunciator is there.