KS1 Audio System

[Homeland]

I am after a few suggestions please, we are a large primary school and have 2 main halls (KS1 & KS2),

 

The KS2 hall has all the goodies, wireless microphones, mixing desk, top of the range amp and speakers etc. As this hall is well equipped its always in constant use and difficult for the KS1 side of the school to get access to so KS1 have now asked if they can have some sort of system installed but not quite at that level.

 

We had a local AV installer come and have a look who recommended the following;

 

• Denon Amp PMA720
  
• Denon CD DCD720
  
• 2 Pairs B&W Speakers 686
  
• 1 Mic Pre Amp
  

 

 

We don't need anything major over there but if were going to put something in I want to be sure its worth the money, can anybody recommend any other amps, cd players, network media players or excellent speakers please so I can make KS1 happy.

[dhicks]

We don't need anything major over there but if were going to put something in I want to be sure its worth the money, can anybody recommend any other amps, cd players, network media players or excellent speakers please so I can make KS1 happy.

 

I've asked similar questions in the past, and we've been buying some equipment quite recently. We went for Chord wireless microphones in the end, about £250 for a set of four mics and a rackmount receiver unit:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/av-multimedia-related/113765-rackmount-wireless-microphone-set.html

 

The comments in that thread wonder about the quality of a set of mics that cheap, but we've found them to be just perfect for what we do with them.

 

For speakers, I'm thinking of going for the Fostex SPA11 (£100 each, you'll need 2), as recommended in this thread:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/av-multimedia-related/125471-speakers-assembly.html

 

You don't need an amp for those, you just plug the left and right outputs of your mixer staight in to each speaker, and if you need more coverage you can daisy-chain them. You'll need a plug socket for each speaker.

 

We've just bought a 1U rackmount mixer (£100) for one of the halls we use - you can just set it up at a reasonable volume level and leave it, there's no need for teachers to mess around with a full-sized mixing desk:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000CCS3UA/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

We've mounted all this in a wheeled flight case (£400) with removeable top and sides - we've mounted the projector in the top and a PC underneath, you just wheel the whole lot in to position and turn it on:

 

Trifibre 12U Rack Mount Mixer Flight Case with Top Tilt: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments

[antlear]

Have you managed to sort your equipment yet. I am sorry dhicks but i would not suggest the stuff you are suggesting at all.

 

if you are still looking are you able to answer the following:

 

- rough budget

- how many people does the room hold and do you have in there ie 200 people

- do you have any current equipment and if so what?

 

I work as a full time av tech and can spec you a system if you want.

 

Anthony

[dhicks]

Have you managed to sort your equipment yet. I am sorry dhicks but i would not suggest the stuff you are suggesting at all.

 

Why not? I was planning to buy maybe four of those Fostex SPA11 speakers for our main hall, but if there's a better option available I'd prefer to get that instead.

[antlear]

The fostex i would not say are a PA speaker more of a personal monitor. I would suggest looking at something abit larger which could handle a wider frequency range. The smallest speakers i would go for would be 8inch cabs.

 

A firm i recommend buying from is Thomann in Germany. if you email them they will do a purchase order and give you an educational discount of about 5% which is good as they are pretty low on quite a lot of items anyway. All products from thomann come with a 3 year warranty and they pay for the shipping back.

 

speakers i would reccomend......

 

passive (need an amp):

- LD Systems LDEB 82 G2 Stinger = £146.39

- EV ZX1-90 = £244.55

- dB Technologies Arena 8 = £236.09

 

Active (built in amp) :

- dB Technologies Cromo 8+ = £181.93

- the box PA108A = £97.31- LD Systems LDEB 82 AG2 Stinger = £244.55

 

 

Amp (for passive speakers):

- QSC RMX 850 = £333.41

- QSC GX3 = £249.63

- Yamaha P2500s = £323.25

 

also thomann have cheaper racks as well : Racks - Thomann UK

 

The mixer you said about is quite limited in control on eq i would suggest getting one of these Soundcraft EPM 6 - Thomann UK

 

for radio mics have a look at these, they are good quality and will last longer than the chord

Shure PG24UK/PG58 Wireless Handheld System CH38 at Studiospares

Shure PG14UK/PG185 Lavalier System CH 69/70 at Studiospares

[dhicks]

The fostex i would not say are a PA speaker more of a personal monitor. I would suggest looking at something abit larger which could handle a wider frequency range. The smallest speakers i would go for would be 8inch cabs.

@antlear - many thanks for your reply, sorry, I didn't see it earlier - I've just had to re-visit this topic as our amp conked out on Friday (in the middle of an event) so we're now looking for new speakers sharpish. I think I'd go for active speakers with pass-through connectors, those PA108As look about right (and I see what you mean about frequency response).

 

The mixer you said about is quite limited in control on eq

 

Indeed, we actually have a Souncraft Spirit F1, I'm just thinking we could do with something with less tempting-looking sliders that I can set up and leave when people want the sound system set up to play background music from an iPod.

 

for radio mics have a look at these, they are good quality and will last longer than the chord

 

Indeed - I know the Chord mics are cheap-and-cheerful, but they seem to be perfectly adequate so far and do come in a handy integrated unit.

[VeryPC_Colin_F]

Hi Homeland,

 

If you need any further information or pricing on the this please send PM.

[antlear]

are planning on mounting the speakers to the wall (fixed install) or on stands (portable). if as a fixed install i would opt for passive rather than powered cabs. if you wish to talk you can call me and i can have a chat. PM me for my number.

 

Anthony

[dhicks]

are planning on mounting the speakers to the wall (fixed install) or on stands (portable).

 

Who, me? We'll be needing speakers suitible for moving around a fair bit - we have a number of various-sized halls we use, speakers that we can daisy-chain together sound perfect. We wouldn't mind having some semi-perminent fixings in our main hall (i.e. they live there, but can be taken off and moved to a different hall when needed), but that hall is listed and we can't drill into the walls.

[Chris_]

for radio mics have a look at these, they are good quality and will last longer than the chord

Shure PG24UK/PG58 Wireless Handheld System CH38 at Studiospares

Shure PG14UK/PG185 Lavalier System CH 69/70 at Studiospares

 

Aren't they getting rid of using channel 69 for radio mics? We've been using the Sennheiser XSW range of radio mics as they're relatively cheap and can be rackmounted. They also take 2x AA batteries so a bit cheaper to run than some of the cheap units that take 9v batteries.

[antlear]

Aren't they getting rid of using channel 69 for radio mics? We've been using the Sennheiser XSW range of radio mics as they're relatively cheap and can be rackmounted. They also take 2x AA batteries so a bit cheaper to run than some of the cheap units that take 9v batteries.

They have got rid of channel 69 and moved the payed for license to ch38,

channel 70 is still free to use and for many people will still do the job and you dont need to spend extra money on a license

 

Most channel 69 equipment will tune to channel 70

[antlear]

the shure system is still cheaper than the sennheiser

 

Shure PG24/PG58 Wireless Vocal System - T10, Channel 70