Extreme reverb problems

[OB2]

Dont know if I should split this to another topic but on the reverse to large reverb what about noise outside?

I was one of the FOH engineers at last years greenbelt in the big top (nicknamed the stripy nipple) and what we had was a rig of 4 meyer msl 4 and 2 meyer 650 subs all from just in front of the stage, I wasnt involved with the rig so im unsure how they judged speaker placement but we did find it quite difficult to gewt an even sound out of it, and the system just did not work for speech..

any ideas??

[Simon Lewis]

I'd a) spilt the topic and b) try and indicate further what the actual problem was.... lack of speech intelligibility, or something else?

[ojc123]

I sometimes have to put PA for events in our school Gym. I don't know much anything about the Haas effect or precedence effect but I adopt a similar strategy to Mr Si's I use a large number of fairly small speakers working at low levels so the noise that the audience hears isn't really bouncing off anything. If I put the speakers at the front in a conventional way it is totally impossible to make out speech at the back. This way works well for me.

 

On the other hand, when they come to me with no warning and say "Can we just have a microphone in the gym?" they get a single 10" + Horn on a stick in the corner pointing towards the diagonally opposite corner. (After I have moaned and grumbled for a bit.) This seems to work ok although I do have to drop out some of the bass and low middle to improve intelligibility at the back.

 

These are trial and error solutions and I don't claim any knowledge of acoustics. To get the best I could out of what we had I tried the various configurations out when the gym had people in it because it made a huge difference to the sound.

 

By the way in a bit of 'PC gone mad' I was pulled up for saying trial and error and told that I had to say trial and improvement because it was more positive for the pupils. My reply is not suitable for a public forum.