Audio Systems: Hooking a laptop into existing Church sound system, usb sound card, rca plugs

Question
Hi Robert,

I'm wanting general information on hooking a laptop into an existing Church sound system.  I'm about to offer rural churches throughout the US and Australia music and vocals on-line to churches that have no music.  They'll be able to just click on the audio from my site and have a "leader of song".  Assuming they have an internet connection in their church, I wanted to offer them some simple advice on plugging a laptop into their church's existing sound system to have full access to music during their Church services.

Hope this request is clear for you.  Looking forward to any advice you can give me.

Thanks lots!


Answer
All laptop computers are outfitted with a 3.5mm jack for headphones. The poor mans way of connecting the laptop to a sound system is go the Radio Shack and by an adaptor cable 3 conductor 3.5mm plug to stero RCA plugs or whatever input is available at the location. You may get fan noise from the motherboard with that scheme. The better way to do it would be to use a USB sound card. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=10681...