Dealing with an awful hall sound system

[SteveB_NI]

Unfortunately our sound system in the main hall is not great quality & makes playing anything through it barely a pleasure! Although we still have to do assemblies through it & that's where this question arises!

 

I'm playing a presentation including sound from an Apple TV (HDMI connection to the data projector). From the data projector the sound is coming out via 2 phono leads (red + white) via a variety of XLR cables, into a XLR jack. This obviously causes a distracting buzz at the best of times, not to mention an awful pop should anyone happen to even breathe near the jack connections.

 

I was wondering if there was a better solution (a new sound system is due soon) in the meantime.

 

I've got 2 options - at present, 1 is to play the video from a laptop directly connected to the XLR port & at the correct moment change the data projector source & play video as normal. The second one is to put the audio content from the projector into an amplifier then into the XLR wall socket. This amp can then be turned off when not required to minimise the buzzing noise... this solution already sounds a bit cleaner anyway.

 

Argh - 3rd option is to go awol before assembly but I can't do that lol!

 

Thanks for any advice!

[Chris_Cook]

I would recommend a DI box and some new cables. I would also invest in an audio cable tester to find out which cable is broken.

 

Two products I would recommend would be the behringer stereo Ultra-DI20 DI box, and also the behringer CT100 cable tester. These are about £30 each. and would be useful additions to any sound system. There are plenty of alternatives. You would also want a reasonable quality mini-jack or phono to twin mono 1/4 inch jack cable to go between the computer and the DI box. Work out what cable you need, then buy it. Avoid a long chain of adaptors if possible.

 

The behringer tester is very good at finding intermittent cables that cut out or cause pops.

 

You may also need to look at the mains electrics. Maybe get an electrician to check that all your av stuff (including the appleTV or laptop) is on the same circuit as the mixer and amps.

 

I have also found that some laptops have noisy power supplies and are better run of batteries when playing videos and sound.

 

All of the kit I've recommended could be used with your new PA system, so you don't have to think of it as a temporary purchase.