Sound Advice: How Many LoudSpeakers Should I Use?

Sound Advice for Best Conference Audio!

Sound Advice, Polite behavior is normally best practices. What polite behavior may not get you however, is a great seat at the conference.

When it comes to sound advice, many of the questions and rental RFQs we see are for 1 to 2 loudspeakers. I almost never see an event planner requesting a four speaker sound system. Many times people believe one speaker will be sufficient. In the other instances people believe two speakers is the most you could ever need in any given situation. Early on in my A/V equipment rental career I was advised to use surround sound systems. This meant, put a speaker in every corner. This was applied in order to achieve full coverage.

We now operate under the premise that single speaker rental request are basically rental suggestions  demanding our professional experience and recommendation.

Unless a client is blatantly demanding a single speaker set up I will never supply an estimate for a single speaker rental. Having so said, I will always recommend a four speaker sound system for groups of 50 or more.

Sound Advice: 50 is the cut off?

In my experience, that is where side conversations start to have a devastating effect.

Side conversations are what happens when some conference attendees are engaged wholeheartedly and some attendees are less than engaged.

What happens in this situation, is the attendees that are less than engaged will start to have a side conversation discussing anything but what is relevant to the conference. The engaged conference attendees, being polite, will not say anything, will completely be distracted and completely miss out on what could be valuable information pertinent to their careers, education or personal life. The engaged attendees would like to hear what the presenter is saying but the nearest loudspeaker is too far away to penetrate the side conversation occurring at their table.

This situation is dire to the overall conference experience of each and every attendee. This is important because as an event planner or conference organizer, your attendee feedback will be mixed.

Your conference reviews may include negative comments, impacting the conference’s future attendance.

For this reason I have developed a chart to assist in deciding the appropriate sized Sound system for speech and music applications.

– Factors that should also be considered; exterior applications, concert level sound, extremely high ceilings and extremely large ballrooms.

Sound Advice Guide

Please use tables as a guide and not in place of consulting your AV professional for advice. Comparable powered speakers can be used in place of passive speaker sound systems in the above tables.

This last tip is written in jest but can still be somewhat useful. In an attempt to make the guidelines scale-able, I present a very casual rule and I use the word ‘rule’ very loosely. If your events are larger than the above guidelines reference, then for every additional 100 people add 4 more speakers and about a 750-1000 watt amplifier or better yet call or email me for more advice. bruce@RentAVHere.com

Reference: http://audiovisualrenting.com/audio/sound-advice/

Quick Tips for Podium Microphones

Once you have overcome the fear of public speaking...if you ever really do; Then you worry about projecting your voice, annunciation and content. 

www.AudioVisualRenting.com

 

If your AV vendor is 'worth his salt,' you should not have to worry about the microphone quality as well. 

Microphone Choices:

If  a sound (no pun intended), decision is made here you could avoid a number of pitfalls during the event. A 'no-brainer' microphone selection for a podium is the industry standard, Shure SM58. We use the SM58 everyday and on almost every job. 

Pro: The SM58 will allow you to crank the volume before feeding back. (Good for presenters who do not project.)

We do however try to stay away from the SM58 when it comes to podiums because of the con...

Con:  When a presenter turns their head, looks down or moves off slightly to the left or right of the podium, the SM58 will not pick up their voice well, due to the limitations and range of the pickup pattern.

Our 1st choice in podium microphones is the Shure MX Series, with heavy windscreen. The MX Series comes with a 12" or 18" goose neck and your choice of omnidirectional, cardioid and super cardioid cartridges. 

 

Pro: These microphones are ideal as podium mics due to there sensitivity. Your presenter can stand to the side of the podium and still be heard.

Con: Sometimes the presenter may want to remove the microphone from the podium and walk around; can't do it.

 

 

User Training:

After selecting the microphone you need to know about placement and how to use it properly. When using the Shure MX Series podium microphones your presenters should speak, keeping about 6 inches from the microphone element. 

 Always use the appropriate windscreen, to avoid the popping 'P's". Human beings expel air when annuciating certain letters. This air will be heard as a loud 'Pop' from the microphone. The goal is to not let the microphone catch any air from the mouth. To that end, be sure not to push the windscreen all the way down; touching the mic head. This will leave yet a little more air between one's mouth and the mic.

  

Whether using the MX Series or an SM58, mic placement is key. Keeping the mic below the height of the presenter's mouth or to their left or right side will also help eliminate unwanted breath and air from being amplified.

Bruce Johnson 
A. V. Rental Services, inc.
Philadelphia, PA 19135
www.AudioVisualRenting.com
bruce@AudioVisualRenting.com