Speaker placement question

[coxnvox]

Hope I can give enough details to get some advice...

We have the tri-amped Mackies that are about 5 years old now, not sure of the exact model, and we have the sub that Mackie sold then for about a grand, I think.

The question is about placement...we're in a cafetorium that is not terrible acoustically and has some decent absorption, and we've experimented with a few different placements, but haven't drawn any conclusions yet. We only go about 9-10 rows of folding chairs deep, but we are pretty wide as far as where the people sit. Last week we had the speakers set on the stage, which is about 3 feet high, and with the speakers being 5 feet tall or so, it made the speakers about ear-height for most of our peeps when standing. I didn't like this because it seems to hit the front rows before it has a chance to disperse at all.

My thought is to get the speakers up a few more feet so that they are above the heads of people when standing, and that that will give the sound a chance to disperse enough that we can go loud without killing the people in the first row or 2. One of our sund guys thinks this will cause them to hear the sound bouncing off the back wall, which is about 100 feet back.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

kc

[agedhorse]

In this case, getting the speakers higher and slightly angleing them downwards might be the best compromise. By chance is thie a 60 degree horizontal horn pattern?