Sound installations – Sound systems (PA systems)

If you are a sound board operator, acoustician or a HiFi-salesman it should be easy for you to assemble the correct devices for your sound system. If your experience lies in image-, projection- or light-technology then you will find the necessary information here.

Accordingly to Wikipedia, two systems are used.

• Large venue PA systems
  For popular music concerts, a more powerful and more complicated PA System is used to provide live sound reproduction. In a concert setting, there are typically two complete PA systems: the «main» system and the «monitor» system. Each system consists of microphones, a mixing board, sound processing equipment, amplifiers, and speakers.

• A public address or «PA» system is an electronic amplification system with a mixer, amplifier and loudspeakers, used to reinforce a given sound (i.e.,a person making a speech, prerecorded music, or message) and distributing the 'sound' to the general public around a building. Simple PA systems are often used in small venues such as school auditoriums, churches, and small bars. PA systems with a larger number of speakers are widely used in institutional and commercial buildings, to read announcements or declare states of emergency.

PA System

The PA system or briefly PA, serves for to the broadcasting and reinforcement of language or music. Public Address systems typically consist of input sources, pre-amplifiers and/or signal routers, amplifiers, control and monitoring equipment, and loudspeakers

• Simple PA systems of this type, often providing 50 to 200 watts of power, are often used in small venues such as school auditoriums, churches, and small bars.
• For popular music concerts, a more powerful and more complicated PA System is used to provide live sound reproduction.
• The PA system is a subsection of the stage technology, as well as the audio engineering.

The task of a PA system is it to broadcast language or music information to a smaller or larger public. All PA systems have a potential for feedback, which occurs when sound from the speakers returns to the microphone and is then re-amplified and sent through the speakers again. This generally manifests itself as a sharp, sudden high-volume piercing sound which can damage the loudspeakers' high-frequency horns or tweeters - and audience members' hearing.