Audio Systems: PA system for school, airband competitions, bells and whistles

Question
Hi Cleggsan

I am looking for a new sound system for our elementary school gym.  Approx 3000 square feet area, for christmas concerts, airband competitions, assemblies, etc.

Can you recommend some good quality equip that won't break the first time an elementary school student touches them??  Need good quality external switches.

Also curious about the power of the speakers needed for this venue... is there a watts per square foot conversion??  Would 2 x 200Watt speakers be enough power??  How big of a subwoofer do we need.

Any help you can offer to this mom would be appreciated greatly.  Thank you

Answer
It is hard to tell without seeing the space.  High ceilings gobble up lots of acoustic energy. On the other hand, 3,000 sq ft is not a really large area.  That is a room roughly 55ft by 55ft or a small gymnasium.

The budget can vary over a very wide range; depending on what you want to do and how much "quality" you want in the sound reproduction.  A minimal system can be done for $200 or so; a middling system for around $1000 and a super duper system will run closer to $10k (including bells and whistles such as digital reverb, recording spigots, video inputs, monitors and such).

If you want to stick with just basic, good audio only and use it with just two or three mic inputs and CD/Cass/MP3 inputs I would suggest you start with the Radio Shack products.  They are fairly good quality and won't break the bank AND will supply you with plenty of acoustic energy.  

As far as power; it depends mostly on the speaker systems and their sensitivity rating.  Look for 98 db or close to that and a power handling capacity of at least 200 watts.

http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=pa&origkw=pa

Above page is a listing of the Radio Shack products that may work for you.

Subwoofer is a totally different matter;  I think you may find it rather expensive to feed that size room with thundering bass - like some of the children are now asking for.  It may take two of them.  And, you may need more amplifier power than the rest of the system.  Subwoofers are expensive and you may want to shop around a little before deciding where to go with it.

You can always purchase the basic system, see how it sounds and then determine if you really need bass augmentation and if so, how much.  For a dance environment, for example, you need very big bass.  For rather normal use such as vocal programs or theatre/drama you don't need much and good full range speaker w/o subs may be entirely adequate.

So, think about my comments and then come back to me with more questions.

Cleggsan

Other makers of equipment that you could investigate are JBL, Peavey, Yamaha, Shure, Electro-Voice and so on.  Using froogle.com can get you some pretty good pricing information in order to prepare a budget for your government leaders who need to see all the documentation!