How many watts of PA power is needed to push an outdoor gig to 750-1000 fans?

[c2dzmm]

I am curious as to how many watts of PA power it would take to sufficiently play an outdoor gig. Say 6 monitors for the band and 2 3-15in. speakers to push the sound to the audience? The gig location would be out in the open with maybe a curtain or banner behind the band. Lets say a crowd of 750-1000 people.

Thanks Guys.

[Al Poulin]

For a rock act, 6 monitors on stage for the performers is fine, but what did you say you would be using to throw the sound into the audience? 2 3-15 speakers? Not sure what you mean. I would guess something like 2 double 18 boxes per side minimum for subs and 2-4 high quality/output 15s+horn per side for mids and highs (or 2 high quality double 12'' cabs per side). Pushed by approx. 10 000 watts or more for the entire system. Depends how loud you want it and what type of music I guess. But 750-1000 people to cover is alot for a live band outdoors. Others with more experience will probably give you a better idea... Al

[tlbonehead]

Monitors don't really matter. Throw about 200 watts each in most cases. As for mains, I'd say 8000-15,000 should do ok with about a 1.5-2 to 1 ratio subs/top cabs, depending on what they actually are, of course. I use 6-8 of these subs outdoors www.sonicspeaker.com/18e.htm and three of these/side (CE34)http://www.hkel.com/speaker.html

[W. M. Hellinger]

I run 9.6KW on my FOH rig. The largest outdoor job I'll agree to do is 500 max coverage. My monitors are fed with 400w ea., so 6 monitors would be 2,400 watts.

 

I don't have a rig that I'd attempt to cover a max cap. crowd of 1K, but I do network with an outfit who runs a Vertec rig that would cover a 1K attendance crowd effectively. I'd expect the arrays they'd deem suitable for that size of call would involve somewhere around 20KW of power on the FOH system.

[Phil Clark]

What I have heard is as a rule of thumb, 4 watts per head, so if you want to cover 1000 people you would need approximately 4000 watts for FOH. Does anyone know if that is an accurate rule of thumb?

[boomerweps]

 

What I have heard is as a rule of thumb, 4 watts per head, so if you want to cover 1000 people you would need approximately 4000 watts for FOH. Does anyone know if that is an accurate rule of thumb?

 

 

 

Yes, I know

 

and NO it isn't.

 

The reason it isn't because no "watts per person" thumb rule works anymore. Coverage area, boundaries, speaker efficiency, coupling of multiple speakers, where the wattage is sent/used within the frequency bands, these all affect your coverage. There is no simple thumbrule of this type.

 

Boomerweps

[W. M. Hellinger]

 

Yes, I know and NO it isn't. The reason it isn't because no "watts per person" thumb rule works anymore. Coverage area, boundaries, speaker efficiency, coupling of multiple speakers, where the wattage is sent/used within the frequency bands, these all affect your coverage. There is no simple thumbrule of this type. Boomerweps

 

There was a recone shop in the area, run by a fellow by the name of Stan. Stan's recone business was sort-of his retirement project. His career in sound spaned decades (from the '30's till the '70's). For many of those decades he worked as an application engineer and installer for possibly Altec, and/or University Sound (EV). Stan talked about state of the art sound rigs he'd installed in movie palaces of the day... where the total system power was 5 watts...in 500+ capacity venues, which, by Stan's account, "had plenty of headroom".

[ATOMICDOG1]

I do a bunch of outdoor shows for 500-1200 people each summer on a system with four Dual 18" subs and four dual 12" tops (and sometimes a pair of JF80 center fils on the stage apron). We have about 17.4k total watts (12k on subs and 5.6k on the tops) on the FOH system. This gives us pretty decent coverage and plenty of headroom most of the time. The tops are JBL 4732A's and the subs are EV MTL1X cabs. We have a second system that is three stacks a side of EV QRX 153/75's and MTL1x subs that can actually do a lot more though, I wouldn't be afraid of using that system for 2000 people outside.

[tremendo]

If you're talking background music, you might be OK. If you're talking a show or concert, no way. It depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

 

We've done some "large" outdoor gigs with 1 main per side and sub, but it was just background party music and worked fine. In 2 days we've got a private party in a room, and although it is smaller than other rooms we've done, it's more of a rocking party, and I'm concerned we might be light with my PA.