PA System for a hall - 13m x 7m

Dizzyg

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Hi, i'm looking to install a new PA System for a rectangular 13m x 7m Rugby Club.

There will be 4 TV's, and the plan is to create some atmosphere with decent sound quality for the upcoming internationals. I will also want to be able to play streamed music via bluetooth reasonably loudly and at good quality.

So I guess i'm looking for recommendations for speakers (I figured i'd need 4?) and an Amp that can do the job....any help much appreciated!

Thanks

Dave
 
Hi, i'm looking to install a new PA System for a rectangular 13m x 7m Rugby Club.

There will be 4 TV's, and the plan is to create some atmosphere with decent sound quality for the upcoming internationals. I will also want to be able to play streamed music via bluetooth reasonably loudly and at good quality.

So I guess i'm looking for recommendations for speakers (I figured i'd need 4?) and an Amp that can do the job....any help much appreciated!

Thanks

Dave

Do you have a budget in mind?
 
What are you using as your source? Are all the TVs going to be showing the same thing?

Are you after ‘surround sound’ or two stereo pairs just to fill the room with commentary etc.?

The easiest way I see of doing this would be to pick one TV to be the ‘master’ and use whatever source you’re feeding that as your source for feeding the amplifier and on to your speakers.

Now if you’re feeding the amplifier a Sky, or other box, signal, it’s likely to be along an HDMI cable, so your easiest setup would be to use an AV receiver. This can be set to ‘upmix’ a stereo feed into ‘surround sound’ - I’m not familiar with current boxes and transmission standards, so it may well be that the signal is already in some form of ‘surround sound’ format.

5 speakers and a sub, with the front three speakers arranged around the master TV, would likely fill the room with sound. It could also double up for watching DVDs/Blu Rays/Movies etc. If you weren’t bothered about ‘surround sound’ then you could just have the three speakers up front, and another pair coming off Zone 2, with the same sound being fed to them - this would depend on the specs of your receiver.

At your budget, I’d be looking at the classifieds, either here, or on eBay, Gumtree, and the like. If you can take an audio feed that isn’t HDMI, i.e. CoAx or Optical you might find an outdated amp with no HDMI capability for next to nothing - heck, if you’re in Northumberland, I’ve got an old amp that would do the job, you could have it for nothing!

Depending on how you plan on mounting the speakers, it may be worth looking at those with in-built mounting options, KEF 2000 series eggs, and the like.

HTH
 
For any commercial installation, use commercial equipment. Trust me, it will save you a lot of heartache in the long run! Speakers in particular feature much better protection from abuse and are much easier to safely mount.

HDMI will run at 1080p up to about 30M with active cables, so as long as your cable runs are less than this, you should be able to run from a Sky, Freesat or Freeview box. I would suggest you also have an input for a laptop or similar - which will give you good flexibility in terms of streaming from other sources.

Denon make a great AV receiver designed for installations. Its has Bluetooth for streaming audio and can be rack mounted - which means you can put it into a cabinet to control access, make it harder to steal and also tidy the cables. - DN-700AV Professional 7.1 AV Receiver

Link this to a good quality HDMI distribution splitter and you should have an excellent, stable picture with the ability to switch to various sources.

Speaker wise, these: LT8P are a good, solid speaker with good mounting hardware and they sound pretty good as well! You could add a sub if you wanted to, but unless you are really pushing the system, I don't think you will need it.

Screens - again I would go for commercial screens - possibly with toughened glass, but you need to weigh up how boisterous things get!! Commercial screens are generally a bit brighter and are rated for longer operational periods - usually specified as 24/7, 8/5 etc. Make sure you get solid mounts and they are installed correctly. I've seen too many bodged installations in pubs and clubs and the results when a screen does decide to come down!

£800 is not enough budget for the whole system. I think the amp will be this on its own and the speakers are about £200 each. If you need to add in the HDMI splitter and the screens - price depends upon size, Freeview / Sat box, any mains work that needs doing, cabling etc and I think £3K - £4K is a more realistic budget.

Could you do it for £800? Possibly, but the result will probably have quite a short lifespan and you will be replacing speakers and probably other parts quite quickly. You might also get hums and buzzes from trying to get audio out of the TVs and issues setting up sensible sound levels and changing channels without juggling remotes.
 
^^^ This is good advice if your budget can be increased. I know nothing about stuff for commercial use, I was advising what I would do given your budget of £800 - which has been pointed out, is not enough if you want to do this properly.

However, I do understand that your club might simply not have those sorts of funds available. The club I'm involved in would never countenance spending that sort of money on an entertainment system - our bar just about wipes it's face - there's nothing in the pot for 'extras' like this. I also understand that you may have been given the 'job' of sorting this by the club having said you like AV stuff - it's remarkable how easy it is to be landed a job that's out of your comfort zone in a club environment. It's just the nature of clubs running on a shoe-string.
 
Noiseboy and Dreamer - many thanks for the guidance. I'm really striving for something that will allow us to blast out the rugby/football/boxing and the odd drunken singalong rather than any serious 'surround sound'. I'm coming round to the idea that we need commercial kit - it needs to be robust and last for a good few years. Regarding the budget, I was looking at £800 for just the amp and speakers, with mounts, cabling and TVs in addition to this. All in I was thinking £3000 but looks like ill need to up this!

Great advice - thanks again.
 
^^^ This is good advice if your budget can be increased. I know nothing about stuff for commercial use, I was advising what I would do given your budget of £800 - which has been pointed out, is not enough if you want to do this properly.

However, I do understand that your club might simply not have those sorts of funds available. The club I'm involved in would never countenance spending that sort of money on an entertainment system - our bar just about wipes it's face - there's nothing in the pot for 'extras' like this. I also understand that you may have been given the 'job' of sorting this by the club having said you like AV stuff - it's remarkable how easy it is to be landed a job that's out of your comfort zone in a club environment. It's just the nature of clubs running on a shoe-string.


Spot on - im learning on the job!!
 
'odd drunken singalong' - you are adding another 'requirement' to the system :) These systems always gain arms and legs.

I would also consider how to integrate Top Table speeches for Events and Ceremonies.

Like Noiseboy says we tend to stay away from using non-Commercial kit for this type of installation.

TV's will want to be in fixed positions with suitable Distribution - you need to decide how best to deliver HD/UHD from your Source devices, worth thinking about 'Digital Signage' as a cost effective add-on which could generate some income to part offset the cost of the kit.

For the PA if you have a room layout which tends to stay pretty 'fixed' then installed Speakers are great - if you require more flexibility you may want to consider a more 'portable' solution.

At my local Community Centre we have a two 'Halls' which cater for a huge range of events - the Halls have a basic two zone 'installed' PA with local wired Inputs for CD/Mobile Phone plus we have a self contained PA with Mic/Line/Bluetooth connectivity which gives us great flexibility depending on the nature of the event and the layout of the room (we have a budget Karaoke Player plus decent Radio Mics too).

Joe
 

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