God_Is_A_DJ Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Guys, just need some advice I have been asked to set up a PA system for a swimming pool in my local area. The requirements that they told me that they need are radio microphone and cd player. I do have some sort of idea what I need but could do with some extra advice What are you thoughts and suggestions guys? equipment suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 It would help to know what the PA system is to be used for. Is it just for general background music and the occasional "this pool is closing in five minutes" type of announcement or do they want high quality, high SPL music for a "swimerobics" class or something? It really does make a big difference. Whichever way you go, pools are hellish places to do sound reinforcement. Acoustically it's hard to imagine a worse environment than all the reverberant, hard surfaces. Speech intelligibility will be a major issue. Similarly, by definition pools are damp...not the greatest place for electronic equpment and speaker cones/coils. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac.calder Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Well it largely depends on purpose. Is the amp/cdplayer/mixer going to be near the large volume of water (in which case, I would recomend having a waterproofed enclosure mounted so that control is just below head hight) or is it going to be in an office? Is the radio mic going to be used close to water? Find out what they want to use it for - for example, if the only reason they want a wireless mic is that they host swimming sports every year and want to be able to move a microphone out into the actual 'pool' for the commentator/MC but it spends the rest of it's time in the office being used for paging, then it would probably be better to place a mic jack behind where the recorders desk would be - certainly far more reliable. If, instead, it was being used for aerobics (in which case, you probably want head mounted :)) then you want something with a beltpack that can be easily waterproofed (nothing comes to mind to tell the truth, as I doubt using a condom to protect the beltpack would cut it (or be considered appropriate)). -- Beaten to it -- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
God_Is_A_DJ Posted March 14, 2006 Author Share Posted March 14, 2006 ahhh yeah sorry about that It will be used over a weekend for a swimming meet (gala). Its gonna be used for roaming mic around the pool and when music when everybody has a break for lunch etc and also presentation music. I know where I will put it, it will be put on the balcony, away from the wet water ** laughs out loud ** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Speech intelligibility is going to be a big issue for you. If the pool has a specific spectators area with seating, I'd choose speakers with a coverage angle only just adequate for that space and try to keep the sound away from the actual pool area itself. Try to avoid as much as possible letting the sound echo around the space...point it at the only soft things, i.e. the audience. If you're required to have some coverage of the pool area (for example for announcements to the competitors, I'd try to run that as a seperate area so you can set these levels differently. I'd also keep levels as low as you can and still have it heard. The name of the game is controlling reflections. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
God_Is_A_DJ Posted March 14, 2006 Author Share Posted March 14, 2006 The balcony is raised so miles away from the pool, however theres not much room up there, will have to direct towards the crowd however swimmers should be able to hear it done at the pool. will a graphic EQ be good in this suituation?any equipment suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 The other problem apart from reflections giving lousy reverb (as if that weren't bad enough) will be the distances you operate over, and thus the potential for multiple direct arrival times as heard by the audience. Both of these factors negatively impact intelligability. Theres really two ways to tackle this one, either lots of speakers with low output so that everyone is near a speaker, or a single cluster arranged so you have (in time terms) a point source, which helps kill one of your problems. The setup least likely to work is a conventional two stacks arrangement. If you were doing this in Yankland, people would advise you to rent Community loudspeakers, as they have solutions for all these types of horrible gigs, but I'm not aware of another manufacturer who trys to make audibly meaningful speakers with specific oddball characteristics and that dont mind getting soggy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmath Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 We recently did Crystal Palace pool with 4 stacks of d&b C4 (1 x top + 1 x sub) shooting across the pool up in to the balcony, then used a run of E3's to cover the lower seating under the balcony sat poolside. It worked very well both speech and music were very listenable as the volume of the direct signal easily surpassed the volume of the reverb. Regards Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 will a graphic EQ be good in this suituation?any equipment suggestions? I'm not sure how to respond to this. I wouldn't attempt any kind of sound reinforcement job without some form of EQ...either a GEQ or a DEQ processor in the chain.... Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayselway Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 TOA Column speakers have always worked well in pool areas when I've done a job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Beesley Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 For speech alone we have used 100V horns in the past as they provide a crude but intelligable system - the real downside being they are not suitable for music. There are many waterproof speakers on the market and some of the newer plastic/abs cabs are also waterproof (Peavey Impulse 200's etc) HTH Chris (non-CPC post) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayselway Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 something like these might be worth looking at - they don't sound too bad for music and are weatherproof (IP65 I think) Link to eBay item - Adastra Column Speaker of course many other makes and models are available :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
God_Is_A_DJ Posted March 16, 2006 Author Share Posted March 16, 2006 Would they be ok to go on poolside? or is that a no no Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenWall Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 If you were going to use a headset then I would suggets one of these water-proof headsets... I know they use these at a very well regarded theme park in the states which has a substantial amount of water/mainly based in large pools with mighty BIG animals! Ben. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
God_Is_A_DJ Posted March 16, 2006 Author Share Posted March 16, 2006 hmm good idea, can you get them in most av hire places? Over the last previous years, we have used just normal radio handheld mics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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