Choosing sound equipment for a nightclub
When opening a nightclub, you need to remember that the choice of sound equipment is one of the most important stages in building a club. We'll tell you what you need to run a club with good sound.
In this case, it is desirable to have all the dimensions of the room where the disco and concerts of musical groups will take place; the dimensions of the hall are needed to build a 3D model in a special program, with the help of which a specialist will be able to select the necessary materials (finishing walls and ceilings) to optimize the reverberation time. Based on the calculation results, the acoustic properties of the room should be improved, only after this it is necessary to follow all recommendations for finishing the room and install sound-absorbing materials recommended by a specialist.
After calculating the sound absorption of the hall, we proceed to the selection of acoustic systems. To do this, we also use special software to calculate room acoustics. We insert acoustic systems into the model that was created to calculate sound absorption and achieve uniformity of the sound field in the area where the spectators are located. To do this, you may have to select and calculate the sound field using various acoustic system simulators, selecting and achieving the best result of sound field uniformity and pressure. When the result satisfies the requirement, we select audio power amplifiers for the selected speakers according to the parameters of the selected speaker systems. At the moment, technology in the field of audio equipment is advancing along with the times; there are analog and digital devices on the show equipment market. Likewise, there are different classes of audio power amplifiers, including analogue and digital, the latter come with remote control; a sound technician serving an establishment in which digital amplifiers are installed will be able to connect to them using a computer to change the operating status and monitor the amplifiers.
Continuing the chain of the sound amplification path, we connect the amplifiers to a sound processor, which divides the sound signal into several frequency bands - high, medium, low, and also distributes the sound signal across acoustic systems that are installed in different points of the hall. The signal to the sound processor comes from a concert mixing console or from a DJ console; switching between them can also be programmed in the processor.
A concert mixing console is selected based on the requirements of sound engineers of musical groups; audio equipment specialists know which mixing consoles are preferable for sound engineers, or in other words, rider mixing consoles.
If the choice of mixing console is digital, then there is no need to install additional sound and vocal processing, because These remote controls have all the necessary functions for processing sound and vocals. There are also analog mixing consoles with decent processing. When installing a conventional analog console for concerts, you still need to install additional processing of vocals and sound signals, which will be located next to the mixing console for the convenience of the sound engineer. For each facility, a mixing console is selected individually, it depends on the composition of the musicians of the groups that will perform in this establishment. For example, for small halls with a small stage, the art director will not invite a musical group with its orchestra to perform, so the sound console can have up to 36 input channels. And if the concert venue has the opportunity to hold concerts of groups with a large number of participants, then you will need a sound mixer with a large number of input audio channels.
When creating a list of audio equipment, do not forget about the microphone park. The microphone park should include vocal and instrumental wired microphones, radio systems with a hand-held transmitter, as well as a belt transmitter for connecting head and lavalier microphones.
Everything seems to be the same, but there is no connection between the audio equipment yet, switching will solve this. To connect different types of audio equipment, there are different types of switching; they are divided into the same segments:
- Acoustic for connecting speaker systems
- Signal for sound processing, sound sources and for connecting the amplifier to the mixing console
- Instrumental for connecting musical instruments and microphones
- Multi-cable (multicore) having many turns combined into one thick cable
But now all this web of wires can be replaced with digital technologies that do not lose the quality of the audio signal. One of the most common digital audio transmission technologies is Dante. Many audio equipment manufacturers are introducing their own digital technologies; they are also the best for this equipment segment.
Continuing the switching section, we move on to the next section - installation of audio equipment and configuration. The two sections are closely related because When choosing the type and length of cable, the designer of audio equipment must imagine how the main audio switching routes will go. This can be coordinated with other premises engineers for ease of installation.
The installation of speaker systems is carried out according to the calculations that were made earlier, observing the coordinates of the suspension or installation points, as well as the angles of inclination and direction of the loudspeakers. The acoustic cable is pulled before finishing work is completed. Installation work also includes connecting all components of the audio path. Of course, during installation problems arise that must be resolved promptly by engineers and installers.
Everything seems to work and is connected, but there is no sound! This is fixed by the audio hardware customizer. Audio equipment is not that easy to get started, for example, getting a digital mixing console running requires fine tuning by a professional engineer who knows how to set it up. Next, the sound signal is configured, frequencies are optimized for the room for excellent sound.
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