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Calculating delay for an odd deployment.


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Doing the main stage at a county fair in about 3 weeks. The main stage is comprised of a large covered grandstands area typical of most other fairs. Doing a walk-through with the fair manager, he explained that the stage will be quite close to the grandstands which will require me to place sattelite speakers in front of a distant seating section which is at a 90 degree angle to the main stage and approx. 60-70' away. Would I still calculate the delay as though those speakers were forward of the mains ?

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I suspect the "perfect delay" will change from seat to seat. I'll suggest you can "rough-in" a calculated delay... but then maybe take a wireless mic out into that distant seating section... with an assistant at the delay knob and stage FOH speakers... Bump up the stage FOH speakers till you have a perceivable mix of the stage FOH speakers and satellite speakers, then walk around the distant seating area "check, test, one-two" with your wireless mic and fine tune the delay till it's "the best compromise setting" through the bulk of the distant seating section.

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Will the seating at 90 degrees still have good sight lines to the stage? Is this an overflow area or a beer garden? If it's the latter there's not much need for delay IMO :) But seriously if the majority of folks can't really see the stage and they're only 60 to 70' away, you might not need delay.

 

My driveway is 50 feet, and I've set up my PA there to test some repeater stacks (whereupon I would stand across the street) and didn't feel the need for delay.. Outdoors with a rowdy roving crowd (kids or drunks) it might be more trouble than it's worth. Having said that, there's nothing wrong with wanting to get it right. Sounds like that's why you keep getting more gigs and rebooks. So... don't let my crustiness dissuade you - it's just my opinion, but it's your gig!

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The sight lines are clear from this extension of the grandstands, it is an overflow of sorts. Not sure why the manager wants the stage so close to the seating. By setting the stage another 60-70 feet back, speaker coverage would be much better. This will be my first time working with this fair, so not being to quick to make suggestions just yet.

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Draw a series of arcs with the orgin of the radius at the source (each speaker location) and see what the time DIFFERENTIALS are to each listening area. With the same source, signals ~6dB louder will dominate so keeping this in mind will give you the information you need to make an intelligent decision.

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