Sprayer? Painting over commercial shelving panelling

[JJ Conway]

We are renovating a unit with huge walls of commercial shelving panelling. It's the kind with horizontal grooves you can hook shelves and store fixtures into. Originally, we were going to take it down, but we have decided to paint over instead. 2 questions:

1. If you used an airless sprayer to paint over such panelling, and if so, do you have any recommendations/best practices to do the job right the first time?

2. When using a sprayer, do you have any tips for keeping the commercial drop in ceiling free of splatters?

A quick search of posts seems like most people say sprayers are not worth the extra prep work if you're not also painting the ceiling. Just curious your experience and recommendations, thanks!