School Hall Upgrade

[FlashUK]

Hi all,

 

A local school has asked me to help with their sound setup. At the moment they have 2 large speakers at the far end of the hall before the stage area with the amp and mic equipment at the back of the hall. The hall itself is long and wide with a high ceiling so the amount of noise produced when the children are in there is quite overwhelming. The headmaster wants another 4 speakers mounted on the walls (2 on each side) with radio mics,normal mics and an amp which can handle these plus a PC input and a dvd input. He also wanted minimal swapping of leads so that at any time they can just turn on and go with any piece of equipment.

 

The stage itself is very noisey and when the children are walking on and off the noise cancells out the speaking, would boundary mics be appropriate as a solution to this?

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

Cheers

 

Flash

[The Magus]

Hi Flash,

 

More information on the hall and stage would be useful. Is this a conventional 'pros arch' hall? what are the dimensions of the stage and the hall? is there a balcony?

 

You say the stage is very noisy: what is its construction, and can anything be done to damp it from underneath.

 

Boundary mics can be very effective depending on the situation. Positioned as float mics across the front of the stage, they will reinforce speech and singing for dramatic productions. However they will be just as effective in picking up the clatter of the stage. They can also be usefully deployed as table or lectern mics. Float mics are not a good solution for picking up the headmaster's assembly chat, nor the voices of people who have not been trained to project. For the greatest clarity and gain before feedback you should consider using a lavalier or tieclip mic, whether a radio mic or a wired mic, or a fixed mic where the speaker is speaking from a table or lectern.

 

Apart from plays / shows / concerts / assemblies, what will the hall be used for?

 

What are the existing speakers? is it proposed that these should be retained, or are you planning to start from scratch with the new system?

 

What is your budget, and how is it to be split between equipment costs and installation costs?

 

I am assuming from the advice you're seeking here that you don't have prior experience of specifying installations of this type: Will there be sufficient slack in the budget for a design consultant?

 

Input from someone with acoustic design experience would be of value. You may find that one of the 'up and coming' speaker manufacturers such as EM Acoustics (I have no links with the company - I'm simply an admirer of their products) will be willing to spend time demonstrating their products to you at the venue, and thus give you some free expertise.

 

Beware of retailers who hold themselves out as 'experts' but in reality simply want to put together a package of high-markup products!

[benweblight]

By the sounds of it, what you are after is not an 'amp' but a mixer feeding the amp so you can run all your sources easily.

[Dj Dunc]

We tried using boundaries in our hall to no avail. Our main stage is hollow with storage underneath, and the main floor is also hollow, with a previously unknown basement underneath. If something moved at the other end of the hall (30m away) thump thump in the boundaries. Grr

 

Dunc

[Chris Hinds]

A local school has asked me to help with their sound setup. At the moment they have 2 large speakers at the far end of the hall before the stage area with the amp and mic equipment at the back of the hall.

What speakers, what relative positioning. Any diagrams with dimensions really help. The trouble with large reverberant spaces is there probably isn't a quick fix. Traditionally amplifiers should be as close to the speakers as possible, but schools have a nasty habit of putting them miles away.

 

The hall itself is long and wide with a high ceiling so the amount of noise produced when the children are in there is quite overwhelming. The headmaster wants another 4 speakers mounted on the walls (2 on each side) with radio mics,normal mics and an amp which can handle these plus a PC input and a dvd input. He also wanted minimal swapping of leads so that at any time they can just turn on and go with any piece of equipment.

More speakers may be the answer but more of the wrong speakers will do more harm than good. Can you give an idea of how much background you have in the areas of installs and in sound reinforcement generally?

 

The stage itself is very noisey and when the children are walking on and off the noise cancells out the speaking, would boundary mics be appropriate as a solution to this?

If anything this will make this more difficult not less, partly because many stages tend to be hollow, but also because they will pick up a fair amount of reflections from round the room too if it's *THAT* reverberant. Close directional mic'ing of people is probably the way to go.

 

Regards

 

Chris

[FlashUK]

If I was to use a Phonic PowerPod 740 200+ 200 W Powered Mixer with main/monitor output, how would I run another 2 speakers from it if need be? The school hall is 20M wide, 35M long and 6M high, the stage is made from rectangles of wood supported by a metal frame.

 

I have had no previous experience in this field and all the information I have has already been posted, I hope to recieve more info later this afternoon.

 

Cheers

Flash

[Ynot]

A local school has asked me to help with their sound setup.

Hi Ashleigh, and welcome to the Blue Room.

 

Unfortunately this is going to be one of those occasions where you're maybe going to have to tell the school to seek professional advice. OK - you've come here today to do that, but what I mean is professionals actually ON SITE and looking at the problm head on.

 

With the greatest of respect, and going by your profile, along with the posts so far, you don't have any audio reinforcement exprience - I assume you're an ex-pupil, who happens to be around at this time?

 

I can appreciate how easy it is to get askd for help, and not want to refuse them, but quite honestly we can't really give advice (even those who do know of such things) remotely.

 

Your best bet is to clarify your location and see if there are any experienced pro's on the BR who could offer proper assistance as part of their job. I'm sure that suggestions and quotes would be freely given.

 

Regards

TD

[StevieR]

If I was to use a Phonic PowerPod 740 200+ 200 W Powered Mixer with main/monitor output, how would I run another 2 speakers from it if need be? The school hall is 20M wide, 35M long and 6M high, the stage is made from rectangles of wood supported by a metal frame.

 

Hey Flash, and welcome to the BR.

 

Firstly, school halls are notoriously bad for sound - lots of hard surfaces and reverb times that would make you cry.

 

No amount of sound equipment can really cure that problem completely. If the money is available, it is a good idea to get some acoustic treatment put in - e.g. drapes, sound boards/baffles on walls, acoustic tiles, etc. Every room is different, though, so an acoustic consultant is a good investment.

 

However, as you are specifying a Phonic powerpod I presume that the budget is pretty low for the work. I would think that without addressing the main problems, the addition of this kit will not make a huge difference to the intelligibility problems you are facing.

 

Steve