An interesting, vibrant and short speech with a powerful beginning and ending will stick with your listeners…that is if they can hear you properly. If you perform at weddings, in halls, at parties, in parks or churches you will know how hard it is to make yourself heard when there are noisy adults and kids in an audience. While there are portable public address systems, you will want to know what kind of system you need to make yourself heard. What is an on board voice priority circuit and how does it enable music to be mixed into the background while someone is talking over the microphone? What about a portable system or a scalable PA system where you only take the components needed for the job at hand?
The size and acoustic properties of the venue are important as this will give you an idea of the PA equipment you will need. What size loudspeakers will you need? If your speakers ohms for instance are too low for you amp, do you know you can blow out your expensive speakers?
Using PA Equipment to its Best Effect
It is bad enough addressing a large crowd indoors without public address systems, but your small voice trying to reach a crowd in an outdoor environment would be absolutely impossible. PA systems are made up of microphones, loudspeakers and an amplifier and if you want to also include music in your event, you will need a mixing console too.
Venues are going to require public address systems which will consist of –
- a pair of speakers along with stands – speaker systems today are more compact with better technologies like switching-mode power supplies. There are two basic types of speakers – active and passive. The passive is just a speaker in a box and requires an amp, while active speakers have an amplifier integrated into the speaker box.
- amplifier with controls in the cabinet – remember that if you are playing jazz music in a coffee shop your amplifier power will be less than what an orchestra playing a Beethoven rendition will require. A good tip for knowing how to choose an amp for your public address system is to always invest in an amp which is 50% more powerful than your speakers and to also match the ohm rating of your speakers to the ohm rating of the amp.
- microphones and mic stands
- mixers – you control the volume of each audio source. The type of mixer you use will depend on the type of speakers used.
- a sub woofer for more bass
- cables
- mains power – the power rating of each piece of equipment will be stated where a fixed mains lead enters the equipment.
Each PA system Differs
PA systems are made up of different components and each system will be different from the next. Take into consideration your budget, the size of your crowd, whether your event is indoors or out and of course, how portable you need your system to be.
Public Address Systems need to be evaluated. There is plenty of helpful information available on the Internet as well from audio and visual specialists.
Operating throughout Melbourne and available every day of the week, specialists like Action Presentations have all the knowledge to advise on brands, have a proven track-record in PA system installation and are able to hire out equipment, saving you a lot of expense on buying. They will also set up your PA system, do a thorough sound check and remove all the stress and worry from having to buy expensive equipment you are unfamiliar with, and damaging it as a result.
