Sound equipment for hall

[localzuk]

Right, our yamaha mixer/amp unit has decided that its life is to be cut short (no doubt due to kids randomly hanking cables out of the speakers whilst the amp is still on), so I am looking at replacing it.

What we would like to do is have a dual system:-

System 1 would be cheap and cheerful, enough for assemblies and PE classes to use, and would use either the existing speakers or new, suitably cheap speakers

System 2 would be decent and would be rolled out for performances. This would consist of a power amp for driving the speakers and a mixer. In between the stage and back of hall would be a snake with break out box on stage.

For system 2, I have pretty much decided on a Soundcramft EPM12 mixer and Yamaha P2500S amp. The amp would be rack mounted on stage, and the mixer would be rackmounted in a portable unit of some kind - along with whatever CD player and other gubbins we decide upon.

What recommendations do people have for system 1? It is meant to be easy to use and hard to break... Any ideas?

[richard.thomas]

Sounds like all you need is to replace the amp for the smaller system then?

We have some fairly decent speakers and an amp. When theres a performance on we get the Multicore out and put a mixer at the back and put everything through the normal amp (it's a poweramp). The speakers took it quite well, however, it's not exactly a huge room- seats about 250 I think.

You can spend as little and as much as you want when it comes to sound systems... It's so easy

[j17sparky]

Budget?

I was gunna suggest a soundcraft mixer for the cheap option lmao


Which ever way you go avoid behringer and cheapo makes like that as as soon as the kids get hold of it itll brake. Oh and gemini, and soundlab need avoiding too.

[richard.thomas]

This school bought behringer religously it seems. All the mixers and their PA speakers are Behringer... It hurts me inside so much

[localzuk]

I'm used to yamaha and soundcraft - good for the money I find.

The budget for the entire thing would be around £700 I think - once you look at that amp and that mixer you've spent ~£450 already. Throw in a snake of the right length/number of ports and thats another £150. So the other system starts to look like being £100. Not much to go on really. But as close to that as possible.

[j17sparky]

You aint gunna get nowt for £100 im affraid. For that price your best off looking at cheapo hifi systems. For £200 you'll probably get some active speakers like Alesis, KCF etc

Maybe these http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/s...roduct_id/7820

[localzuk]

j17 - the point is, it doesn't have to be decent. It just has to be good enough to play music during assemblies and during PE dance lessons. It doesn't have to blast the hall with sound either. So I would not be looking at spending £200 on speakers for sure.

[Butuz]

What I would do is - buy system 2, and then spend whatever £ you would have spent on system 1 - getting system 2 fitted permanently.....

Cant see the need for two systems.

Andrew

[Domino]

exactly what i was thinking.

If its getting trashed then obviously needs tighter control.

Maybe locking away in a control room

[Andrew_C]

Get the speakers up on the wall away from the kids, and you'll probably be able to run at lower levels. Behringer make some quite reasonable power amps, but I've not used any of their speakers. Might be worth investing in some form of speaker processor to stop the "Turn it up to 11" brigade breaking the speakers.

Allen & Heath would be another mixer company I'd look at, their small mixers are fantastic value.

Best bet is to get someone in to do some measurements and demo the right kit. Get it right first time, and save money by only doing it once!

Price for a locking 19" rack.

[localzuk]

The problem is this - the system gets used by:

1. Staff who have no idea about sound equipment but think 'it can't be that hard' and therefore manage to break it.
2. Kids, who don't care if they break it or not
3. Sensible people who know what they are doing (ie. me and one other).

As you can see from that, the people who break it are in the majority, and installing anything such as a mixer permanently would get broken almost instantly. Also, the mixer would then need to be portable for moving from its usual location on stage to the back of the hall for performances.

So, the system I'd be wanting would be something where people can just put cd's in, plug their laptop in without any removable sliders, knobs or buttons and being unable to unplug the speakers from the amp whilst also being able to be used with a mixer for proper performance usage - this would be the ideal solution.

The speakers we have are roughly the same size as Yamaha AX-15 ones IIRC, and currently live one on top of the each other at the edges of our stage (2 at each side). They connect via 1/4" jack's so can be unplugged very easily. They have to be left in a state where they are usable and cannot be locked away or the like and we do not have any form of control room or anywhere for such a room to exist.

[laserblazer]

This is what we use. It's worked fine up to now but the PTA are going to fork out 2 grand for a new system. I use the Kustom one with a petrol generator for Sports Day and it has paid for itself twofold in PA hire costs.

[john]

This is what we use. It's worked fine up to now but the PTA are going to fork out 2 grand for a new system. I use the Kustom one with a petrol generator for Sports Day and it has paid for itself twofold in PA hire costs.

I've got something similar, I have a Phonic Roadgear system and thats great - http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/s...roduct_id/4078