Applications
Sound Systems for Schools, Colleges and Lecture Halls
A school hall is one of the hardest speech rooms on any campus, and it usually has to work for six different events a week.
What this application asks of a system
The standard school hall is an acoustic worst case: a rectangular box with a hard floor for sport, a stage at one end, glazing down one side and no absorption anywhere. Reverberation time in a room like that is long enough that speech from a single wide-pattern loudspeaker turns into a wash by halfway back, and adding level only feeds the reverberant field. Sports halls are the same problem with a higher ceiling.
The room also has to do everything. Assembly on Monday, drama on Wednesday, exams on Thursday, parents' evening on Friday and a five-a-side match at the weekend. The system needs to be intelligible for a head teacher on a handheld microphone and still credible for a school production with playback, without being reconfigured between the two.
The last constraint is operational. The person switching it on is a teacher, not an engineer, so the presets, the limiting and the zone logic have to be set once and then stay out of the way. Anything that can be turned into a problem at the wall plate eventually will be.
What we look at first
- Reverberation time in an untreated hall, and choosing directivity that works with it
- Vertical pattern control so energy lands on seated pupils and not on the ceiling or the glazing
- One room, many uses: assembly, drama, music, exams and sport from the same install
- A simple, locked-down operating layer for non-technical staff
- Zoning across the hall, the sports hall, corridors and reception
- Durability and mounting height in a room where balls get kicked
Why SSOUNDS for this
A school hall is a speech room with a long reverberation time and no absorption anywhere, so we answer it with directivity rather than wattage. Our column arrays exist for precisely this room: the M3.12P is described in our own catalogue as engineered for long-throw speech intelligibility in halls and reverberant spaces, with no crossover to lobe through the vocal band.
We are the manufacturer, which matters more on a school budget than it does anywhere else. One source for the loudspeakers, the amplifier and the processor means one warranty path, one preset library, and a hall that can be extended in five years with the same parts rather than replaced.
The person who switches it on is a teacher. We commission the presets, the zone logic and the limiting once and then lock them, so the hall sounds the same at parents evening as it did at handover, and nothing at the wall plate can undo the tuning.
Recommended SSOUNDS products
Grouped by the job each product does in this kind of system. Specifications live on the product pages and in the data sheets, so nothing is restated here.
Hall and auditorium mains
Speech-first coverage for assembly halls, lecture theatres and campus auditoria.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS M3.12P
3″ × 12 full-range column array, long-throw speech intelligibility for reverberant rooms.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS XTO 4.6
Column element of the XTO System, passive line array, 4 × 6.5″ drivers, 65 Hz – 20 kHz and 134 dB peak in a sightline-friendly column.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS LS208
Compact dual-8″ line-array element, 141 dB peak, 55 Hz reach and 100° coverage from a 26 kg box.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS M-12
12″ full-range point source, mains or floor wedge, the all-rounder of the M-series.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS M-10
10″ full-range, compact mains or monitor with strong vocal projection.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS Event 4A
Active column PA: two column tops (8 × 4″ full-range) on a 15″ powered sub, 2 × 800 W Class-D amp, onboard DSP with Ethernet control, Dante optional. 120° × 30°, 124 dB from the coupled tops, flight-case or jacket variant.
Compact rooms, gyms and sports halls
Smaller multipurpose spaces, drama studios and high-ceiling sports halls.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS M-8
8″ full-range, high-output multipurpose box for portable PA, fill and install.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS M-6
Compact 6.5″ full-range, versatile install and portable speaker with M8 rigging.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS M-4
Ultra-compact 4″ full-range, discreet fill and foreground audio with M-rigging.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS M3.6P
Compact 3″ × 6 full-range column array, clean speech and music for architectural install.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS P6T
Two-way 6.5″ install loudspeaker in a moulded ABS cabinet, 80 Hz to 20 kHz, 90° × 60°, on a 70/100 V line or at 8 Ω.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS P5
Three-way 5″ install loudspeaker for wall and corner mounting, 120° × 90°, in a slim white aluminium cabinet.
Distributed ceiling audio
Classrooms, corridors, libraries and reception, on 70/100 V lines or low impedance.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS CL6
6.5″ two-way ceiling speaker, discreet, even distributed audio with 70/100 V tapping.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS CL8
8″ two-way ceiling speaker, full-range background and foreground audio with 70/100 V tapping.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS CL6HD
6.5″ two-way ceiling speaker with its own amplifier and DSP, Dante audio and PoE power on one network cable.
Subwoofers
Low-frequency support for drama, music and productions, sized so it never becomes the hall's problem.
Amplification and processing
Presets, zone alignment and limiting configured once, then locked so daily operation stays simple.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS A14X
4-channel touring amplifier for line arrays, 4 × 2,000 W @ 4 Ω, analog input.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS D14X
4-channel DSP amplifier with FIR, line-array power plus full system processing and presets.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS DSP 4×8
4-in / 8-out loudspeaker processor, 96 kHz, 1/36-octave filters and full system alignment.
SSOUNDS
SSOUNDS A4-400
4-channel 1U Class-D installation amplifier, 4 × 400 W into 8 Ω, XLR and Euroblock inputs, speakON outputs.
Why these products. The M3.12P is described as engineered for long-throw speech intelligibility in houses of worship, halls and reverberant architectural spaces, which is the school hall problem exactly, and the M3.6P for architectural install. The XTO 4.6 names auditoria. The CL6 and CL8 are described as distributed commercial install speakers for clear speech with 70/100 V tapping. The M-series compact boxes carry the install tag and are described for install and portable duty. The LS208 is included for larger campus auditoria on the strength of its format rather than a named reference, so treat it as the step up rather than the default. The P6T names classrooms, and the A4-400 is a 1U installation amplifier that names schools. The P5 is a three-way wall and corner cabinet that names classrooms. The CL6HD names schools. The Event 4A is a self-powered all-in-one column PA whose tight vertical pattern keeps speech on the seated rows rather than the ceiling, included for portable assembly and multipurpose halls on the strength of its format rather than a named reference.
Guides for this application
Get this specced for your room
Send us the drawings, the seat count and what the room has to do. Our engineers model the coverage and come back with a product list, a rigging plan and a budget.