HilcrRWise Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 I have been asked to configure a cheap rack mounted A/V solution for our school hall. We are currently using a very old Coomber Hall system (88 Watts I believe), while this is loud enough for our uses it is starting to fall apart. I am currently looking at the following for the audio side: Amp - Behringer A500Speakers - Behringer Eurolive B212Mixer - Behringer EuroRack RX1602 What are your comments on these products, do you have any alternatives that may be better for around the same price? We would also need to wall mount the speakers, would this mount (http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/level5/module.jsp?moduleId=cpc/266410.xml) be compatible with these speakers? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Riley Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 You could look at thomann stuff instead - perhaps the box pa202 for the speakers (£87.05 inc vat each) and t.amp 1050 for the amp (£145.08 inc vat). These are better regarded products and come with a 3 yr no questions asked warranty. The A500 isn't really designed for powering large PA speakers, instead being better suited for studio applications, and if you were to stick to your proposed rig then I'd look at a different, more powerful amp. In terms of mounting, as long as you make sure that you use a 'top hat wall mount' like this instead of just a generic TV mount, which I've seen used before. M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HilcrRWise Posted September 15, 2008 Author Share Posted September 15, 2008 Unfortunately being a school we are restricted to only being able to purchase from UK companies. Do you know if there are any UK retailers that sell those products? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamdking Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Unfortunately being a school we are restricted to only being able to purchase from UK companies. Do you know if there are any UK retailers that sell those products? Are you serious?! That's ridiculous, schools could save loads of money from buying abroad in many circumstances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revbobuk Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Back to the point - more information would be useful. What do you need to accomplish with this system? How big is the hall? Secondary school? How many pupils? What kind of wall surfaces - that often makes quite a difference to the system that's needed. What kind of signal sources? Do you aim to use this for any kind of productions? Let us know... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HilcrRWise Posted September 16, 2008 Author Share Posted September 16, 2008 The hall is approximately 13m wide, 17m long and 5m up to a suspended ceiling (plasterboard) and about another 2-3m on top of that to the actual ceiling, walls are more or less 75% brick and 25% glass with thick curtains. for productions we usually seat around 200 people, for school use they have squeezed in around 500 kids sitting on the floor. The system will be used for general use, ie: assemblies and casual gatherings and will have a CD player, DVD/VCR player and a computer permanently attached with the option to connect additional equipment if required, ie: laptop, mics, etc. It will not be used for full school productions as we already have kit for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revbobuk Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 The hall is approximately 13m wide, 17m long and 5m up to a suspended ceiling (plasterboard) and about another 2-3m on top of that to the actual ceiling, walls are more or less 75% brick and 25% glass with thick curtains. for productions we usually seat around 200 people, for school use they have squeezed in around 500 kids sitting on the floor. The system will be used for general use, ie: assemblies and casual gatherings and will have a CD player, DVD/VCR player and a computer permanently attached with the option to connect additional equipment if required, ie: laptop, mics, etc. It will not be used for full school productions as we already have kit for that. One problem is the choice of mixer; the eurorack is a line mixer, with very limited eq. It won't accept microphone level inputs. And it doesn't leave you enough flexibility to adjust for room acoustics. A conventional mixer would perhaps be a little more versatile. One choice I've used to great effect is the Phonic Powerpod 865 - a powered mixer which will rackmount, and which has 2x300W of power. Includes a graphic, which could be really useful, and plenty of power. Then a decent pair of plastic speakers - try the Studiospares range. Or you could go for the Yamaha StagePas500 - which is very cheap from Dolphin at the moment - just £550 inc VAT. You could even choose not to wall mount this one, and it would be more versatile. Just a few thoughts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HilcrRWise Posted September 17, 2008 Author Share Posted September 17, 2008 I am not too worried about eq at the moment and am looking for something with as few controls per channel as possible so as not to freak out the teachers when they are using it, the last thing I want is to be called down every time it is used just because they want to turn the volume up or down and cannot figure out which knob to use, not to mention the hassle of having to reset everything if an enterprising pupil decides to fiddle with things while the unit is unlocked. If the sound does turn out to be bad enough to require eq'ing I can always add a standalone eq later and stick it behind everything out of the way once set. The mixer will also need to have rear mounted inputs/outputs and be as compact as possible as rack space will be fairly limited. As for mics, I didn't take in that the RX1602 was line level input only, however we will only be using Sennheiser EW300G2 series wireless mics with it and, as I understand it, these mics can be set to output a line level signal so there shouldn't be a problem using it with this unit (please correct me if I am wrong). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunk_1984 Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 One problem is the choice of mixer; the eurorack is a line mixer, with very limited eq. It won't accept microphone level inputs. And it doesn't leave you enough flexibility to adjust for room acoustics. A conventional mixer would perhaps be a little more versatile. Any EQ etc in this kind of situation should be locked away, or meddling fingers will mess with it/make little patterns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phatempire Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I used this wall mount stand for my speakers, similar to the Thomann but the price is cheap. No problems with it so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Maybe too many knobs for your kn*** to fiddle with ( I feel your pain) but this from CPC isn't half bad. 6 input channels which can be either mic or stereo line, headphone, unbalanced and balanced outs. Auto ducking using inputs 1 or 1&2. I've not tried it with music yet, but is fine for lectures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King_Tom Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Everyone is aware that Thomman is coming to the UK... So depending on when you are buying this stuff, Thomman might be here, I Know they already have there feelers out around the UK, and I believe although don't know, they already have there first site decided on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolley1466 Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Unfortunately being a school we are restricted to only being able to purchase from UK companies. Do you know if there are any UK retailers that sell those products?When I was at school, we bought stuff off thomann. Dont tell them :] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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