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Suggestions for PA Systems

E

EngineeringDog

All-

A station has contacted me about getting a portable PA system for them.. They would use it for remotes/community events as well as various community parades the station announces each year. The source material would typically be speech, possibly some music. The system would be basic, probably a couple mics and perhaps a music source (CD player, iPod, etc). Curious what you guys are using for such events. I've also seen some of the self-contained PA systems that look interesting. So, what are you folks using for such events? What systems? Which sizes?

Thanks for any help!
 
I just bought two of these, along with the matching bags, for our promotions department.

Link: http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00B78SZJ2

They are small, lightweight, and sound really good. The mixer can be mounted on a mic stand as well... which is a cool feature.

I had bought six of them at the previous gig (well, actually the previous model) and to the best of my knowledge they are still in use after 5 years. Converting promotions years to regular years, I'm pretty sure that is like 900 normal years... and they've survived.

They also have a slightly larger model if you feel you need more power.

I think for the price point they can't be beat.
 
Thanks for the info. I'm curious how that works outdoors, its coverage. They would most likely place the speakers on stands above the crowd. What is your experience regarding distances over noisy crowds? Most of their use would be speech. Again, I really appreciate your help. Thanks!
 
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Yamaha makes good PA systems and they sell for a fair price.
They are not weatherproof.
If you purchase the system, make sure to provide plastic garbage bags to cover the speakers and protect them in the event of rain.
 
Voice is easy, its when you start talking music when you need to start enlarging your speakers and adding subs. These actually have a knob on them that give the mid-range a "boost" for speech only applications. That lightens the load on the speakers for the "difficult" frequencies to reproduce and essentially lets you get louder without distorting. That's a pretty dumbed down explanation, but hopefully you catch my drift.

Either way, these are impressively loud for their size. The trick, which you have already hit right on the head, is to get the speakers up above the heads of your crowd. The difference in range that lifting the stands up a couple of feet makes is quite surprising.
 
The speaker choice always depends on how far you want to throw and how portable you want. Check out the new line JBL has that was designed by the famous Don Keele. They can be mounted on stands...have a very uniform level front row to back and have a very wide smooth horizontal coverage all the way out to the highs. There is a simple Windows app that lets you see how far each one will throw for various mounting points. I have been using them and love the performance. They work similar to a line array speaker. They don't work like the typical old point-source speaker design. Go to the jblpro site and look for the CBT speaker line. It was based on unclassified Navy underwater sound beam-forming technology. They have full range devices however you can never get enough low bass so subs are good to have.

Mackie has a small iPad controlled mixer that also kicks butt. You can un-dock the iPad and control the mixer wireless.
 
I'm sure I will get flamed for this, but I use a lot of Behringer PA equipment for remotes. There are several reasons for this. Contrary to popular belief, it sounds pretty decent and works quite well. At a remote, nobody is an audiophile. As long as the audio is clean and clear everybody's happy. Their designs are pretty generic, which makes them easy for inexperienced people to use. In my experience, it has been rugged and reliable. If you have a failure, don't even attempt to repair it, just replace it. That will be quicker and probably cheaper. Their products are a lot of bang for the buck. You will be hard pressed to find something better for less money. Because of the cost, if some idiot destroys something, you won't feel that bad about it. Losing a $15 microphone (that sounds OK) isn't anywhere as big a deal as losing a $100 mic (that doesn't sound all that much different).

No matter what you buy, one place to not cheap out is the cables. Probably 90% of portable PA failures are actually the result of bad cables. They live a hard life. I've had good luck with Pro-Co, Horizon, Hosa and Rapco. I have had horrible luck with Monster and almost every Chinese cable. I once bought some mics from Musician's Friend that came with "Free Cables." That was a huge mistake, but they suckered me in. The XLR connectors would not make good contact with normal connectors from Neutrik or Switchcraft, causing some very interesting intermittent problems. I eventually changed the connectors to Neutriks and the problems went away. In the process of changing them, I noted the actual cable had extremely small conductors and almost no shielding. In the long run. It was junk. "Free" wasn't a cheap enough price.

I will second the comment to buy speaker stands so you can get your speakers up over people's heads. A good rule of thumb for speaker placement is "If you can see it, you can hear it." Ultimate Support makes some very good stands, but I've been equally happy with On Stage stands. They are much less expensive and do a good job without sacrificing safety.

Of course, you can spend as much as you want on PA equipment. There are some really great products out there, but for a radio remote application, many are simply over-kill. At some point, you have to ask if spending 3 db more money will result in more income for the station? Usually not, as long as what you do with it does not embarrass the station. Did I mention, in this case, I'm the one paying the bills?
 
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