Speakers, Specifically Choosing and Placing Speakers Properly for Profit
By Tad Wilkes
There are myriad ways an on-premise operation can make or break a
potentially regular customer. For example, a quality signature drink
can make the difference between bringing someone back and failing to
make a memorable impression.
Personalized, attentive service can make a patron feel important and
welcome, whereas the opposite can send them elsewhere. One factor of
the mix that many operators foolishly put low on the list of priorities
— but is just as crucial in creating an environment that is worth
coming back for — is the sound that hits the guest’s ear. And paramount
in insuring the sound is just right is the placement and capabilities
of speakers.
All of the aforementioned things are elements contributing to an
overall atmosphere. And few things are as grating to a patron trying to
enjoy himself as sound that is unpleasant or even torturous to the ear.
By taking a few factors into consideration, an operator can present
sound that does its part in making a venue the heavenly escape it
should be, rather than something more annoying than not going out at
all.
The Tools for the Job
Placement of speakers and coverage patterns depend upon the type of venue and should be configured accordingly.
Doug Buday is CEO of Sprox Inc., based in Charlevoix, Mich., which
manufactures speaker systems and other entertainment equipment for bars
and clubs. He’s seen lounges, bars and clubs that have set up their
speakers wrong and those who have done it right.
“The No. 1 thing is that you want to understand and know what you’re
looking for,” Buday says. “The No. 1 mistake people make is (in
considering) how loud the crowd is going to be in your bar, which
sometimes may be kind of hard to determine until it’s actually built.
But, if just the crowd noise is going to be 105 decibels, and you’re
going to even have a lounge environment, you have to make sure your
speakers are capable of overcoming that sound level.
“If you’re just doing a stage environment, obviously you’re just going
to be firing speakers back into the crowd, and you want to make sure
your speakers have the correct coverage pattern,” Buday says. “Each
speaker has a different horizontal and vertical dispersion. That’s
really easy to do. If you’re doing a lounge or the background music
type of club, you want to make sure you have even coverage. Everywhere
you go (in the venue) you want everyone to have the same sound quality
and loudness.
Sensitivity Training
“When you’re in the lounge type environment or sports bar environment,
people are going to be using the compact, full-range speakers,” Buday
says. “The biggest mistake people make is they don’t look at the
sensitivity of the speakers. The sensitivity rating lets you know what
their average output is. If you have a speaker that can only do 85
decibels, and your crowd noise is 95-100 decibels, you’ll never hear
the sound. You need a speaker that can do 94-97 decibels.
“The other thing you want to look at is the maximum sound pressure
level your speakers can do. That means when you crank it up all the
way, and you’ve got a crowd rocking in there on a Saturday night, or
the big game’s on, how loud can that speaker actually get at peak
performance. If your bar’s going to get really loud, you need something
at least in the 105-115 decibel range. You can do that with compact or
small speakers.”
A Place for the Bass
“In a lounge or nightclub, one of the other big mistakes people make is
where they put their subwoofers,” Buday says. “You’ve been in
nightclubs where nobody stands in one area, because the subwoofer will
knock you on your ass.” This miscalculation often is the result of the
DJ or sound engineer testing levels or soundchecking when the venue is
closed and empty.
“The easy fix is you can go buy a sound pressure level meter at Radio
Shack for about $40,” Buday says. “So, if nobody’s in there, the DJ can
walk around and see where there are hot spots. Sometimes just turning
the speaker (fixes the problem). Especially with the subwoofer, moving
it one foot from the wall makes a huge difference. If you need more
bass, you move it closer to the wall. If you need less bass, you move
it further away from the wall. Literally just by moving a big subwoofer
a foot, you can change the whole bass impact of a nightclub. It’s
amazing. And then everyone gets great bass instead of the one 10-foot
area where it knocks your teeth out.” NCB
There are myriad ways an on-premise operation can make or break a
potentially regular customer. For example, a quality signature drink
can make the difference between bringing someone back and failing to
make a memorable impression.
