How do I make this most awesome?

Lisa Lane-Collins

Lisa Lane-Collins

Sophomore
Dec 9, 2012
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Adelaide, Australia
So by luck I've landed myself a permanent hire gig and I need to do some installation-esque stuff in the beer garden so they can have music out there.

Before I go and throw a bunch of speakers up, I thought it'd be worth querying the forum for advice, mainly to do with dispersion (not my area of expertise.

Beer garden is configured a bit like this

Beer garden.jpg

My first thought was to go with some Turbo Impact 55ts, maybe four, maybe one in each corner of the combined pergola structure, or 6 which would mean an additional 2 in the centre pointing in. This would provide pretty even coverage inside the pergola but probably leave the top left corner of the beer garden somewhat quiet (although people rarely sit there). I also wonder if it would be kind of weird having a sound source on stage but not really hearing it coming from stage. So, an additional Turbo mounted on stage pointing out perhaps? To the centre of the space or the uncovered corner? Instead of the one in the top centre of the pergola?

I was chatting the boss yesterday who'd just been to Sydney and been in a beergarden with a huge array of small speakers pointing in, all pretty low volume, he reckoned it sounded phenomenal. Might there be a better way to set up beer garden sound than the turbos in pergola corners plan?

Other things to consider - when they have DJs I'm strongly leaning towards bringing in a powered sub for the occasion (rather than permanently installing the turbosound sub that goes with those speakers), I'm leaning this way as, outside of DJs I don't think they will ever want it to be particularly loud out there. Also, the more In the beergarden I can keep the sound, the better.

Looking forward to hearing people's thoughts. :)
 
Re: How do I make this most awesome?

Hopefully someone there can address the actual install side as here there can be code and even licensing requirements associated with professional permanent installations in public venues.

Do you have any feel for how loud you need or want to get? Is this outdoors with it open around the area shown or are there surrounding structures or walls? How large is the space shown and how high are the pergolas?

You address covering the pergola seating but what about the other seating shown? And as far as speakers at the stage, what is the stage and what structure is there?

I can't recall having seen many beer gardens with an actual DJ. Tuba and accordion, yes, but no DJ in the sense I would usually associate it. What kind of music and performances are involved?

With a temporary powered sub how do you plan to wire and process the system? Would you need system processing with different presets for the two situations? If you have multiple distributed mains then how would the frequency response vary throughout the pergola areas with a single subwoofer?

Also, from experience with a beer garden, are there any relevant noise ordinance or other community noise considerations? I have seen many situations where amplified sound is considered differently in regards to noise.
 
Re: How do I make this most awesome?

with the licensing/code query, i'm doubtful that there would be, i'll check in on it though. i'm under the impression you need a riggers certificate to mount things higher than 4m.

pergolas combined are approx 8 by 10 m, the stage area is walled and roofed, there's a high wall parallel to the staircase, and the back of the pub on the side with the bar (fair bit of verandery under cover type areas), other two sides have tin fencing, it's effectively open air though.

i havent had any directive from my employer regarding volumes but i know the pub experienced a lot of trouble with noise complaints 2 years ago. currently they have ben doing sporadic events in the garden with sound supplied by a pair of thumps and a jbl prx sub...the good dj mixes quiet, the ones from outside always push the thumps into their limitors though.....id be more inclined to circumnavigate this need for volume by giving the djs foldback though so maybe leave that consideration out for now.

decided against the 'ring in' sub, i should install one with the rest of the speakers. i'll take some photos tomorrow and post, might give a better idea of the space.
 
Re: How do I make this most awesome?

Tomorrow took a couple more days.

Hopefully this will give a better idea of the space.

View from the stage
BG stage.jpg
View Of the stage
BG audience.jpg
P.O.V. from the uncovered far corner
BG farcorner.jpg

Still leaning towards a set of Impact 55s, still stuck on best configuration for dispersion.
 

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Re: How do I make this most awesome?

I don't have much to add on your speaker selection as I am not really familiar but have some thoughts. You might not really need as large delay or fill speakers as the mains. I am assuming this will not have a tech running the shows in which case you might want to provide amps and dsp/ limiting presets for dj or live bands that will be out of reach by them. Also I will chime in on agreeing a permanent sub is a good idea in my experience it can actually help keep the overall volume down by making things full and rich at lower levels. Maybe post a link to those speakers for us to lazy to google. If high volume is not a concern you can get some great deals on used install stuff.
 
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Re: How do I make this most awesome?

Lisa Lane-Collins said:
http://www.turbosound.com/upload-files/File/datasheets/impact55t.pdf

One more piece of the puzzle, the reason I have considered many speakers instead of a pair at the front is for the possibility that I can fill the space with sound with reduced spill into the surrounding neighbourhood.

Good suggestion about dsp/limiting.
Click to expand...
It depends on what you are trying to do. "fill the space with sound" or have good sound? With loudspeakers -LESS is always better-for sound quality.

If you just want to make some noise and don't care about clarity-then yes-spreading speakers around might help keep the level down-UNLESS they turn it up and claim they can't "hear" it, when what they are really complaining about is that they can UNDERSTAND it.

Yes DSP and limiting (if done properly) is always a good thing. A DSP by itself does nothing to improve the sound-it depends on who is using it.
 
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