Newsroom
Projects, live events, news, facts, and answers from the SSOUNDS team.
Clients specify SPL and frequency response coverage as the primary metrics for audio system design, but neither tells you whether speech will be understood by the people in the room. Speech Transmission Index measures something fundamentally different — the preservation of modulation through the transmission channel — and by the time poor intelligibility surfaces after installation, the problem is almost never in the electronics.
High STI is not the result of powerful amplifiers or expensive loudspeakers — it is the result of disciplined system design that treats the room as part of the signal chain. This article documents the engineering methodology across four of the most acoustically demanding venue categories: churches, mosques, government buildings, and airports.
Smaart, the NTI XL2, and the NTI TalkBox each occupy a distinct role in the measurement chain — and confusing those roles is one of the most common sources of error in installed audio commissioning. This article breaks down what each tool actually does, why coherence is the most misread trace in Smaart, and why a single-point STI measurement should never close a project.
The Commonwealth of Zion Assembly annual convention demanded stadium-scale coverage across their Abuja auditorium and an outdoor overflow zone for 15,000 worshippers.
SSOUNDS delivered the complete audio, visual and lighting rig for TEDx Enugu, covering 800+ delegates across the main hall and two overflow rooms.
SSOUNDS supported the audio production for one of Africa's largest annual gospel concerts at Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, drawing 200,000+ attendees.
SSOUNDS provided stage PA, in-ear monitor systems and broadcast audio infrastructure for The Voice Nigeria Season 4 live shows in Lagos.
SSOUNDS designed and commissioned a permanent audio system for Dunamis International's Glory Dome, one of Africa's largest single-span domes, seating 100,000.
Studio, wireless ANC and pro IEMs now available.
Hear the SSOUNDS line array live — book your slot.
Touring came back louder than ever. A look at how live sound recovered — talent shortages, gear demand, and the lessons that stuck.
Full line-array system for a 3,500-seat sanctuary in Lagos.
If you run regular events (weekly services, a venue), buying pays off and you control quality. For one-off or occasional events, renting a tour-grade rig with an engineer is more cost-effective and removes storage, maintenance and transport headaches. SSOUNDS does both — we can advise based on your event calendar.
Impedance is the load the amplifier sees. Get it wrong and you either lose power or damage the output stage. Here is what the numbers mean in practice.
A 3 dB difference in sensitivity means you need twice the amplifier power to reach the same SPL. That number on the spec sheet has direct cost implications.
Maximum SPL figures are useful for rough comparison but frequently misleading in detail. Here is what to look for before trusting the number.
The growth of purpose-built venues across West Africa is outpacing the engineering infrastructure needed to operate them well. That gap has a cost.
Feedback occurs when a microphone picks up the amplified output of its own signal through a loudspeaker, and that loop gain exceeds 1 — at which point the system oscillates. The primary controls are the microphone polar pattern, gain structure, and physical positioning. A cardioid microphone pointed away from the loudspeakers has the greatest rejection of their output. Lower console gain means less amplification in the loop. A microphone held closer to the source requires less gain — reducing all gains simultaneously. The relationship between microphone-to-source distance and gain before feedback is direct: halving the distance between the microphone and the vocalist's mouth reduces the required input gain by approximately 6 dB. That 6 dB allows 6 dB more headroom before the loop reaches oscillation. Performers who pull the microphone away from their face while singing are giving away this headroom unnecessarily. Physical positioning of loudspeakers relative to microphones is the most powerful feedback control. A main PA positioned in front of the microphones, aimed away from the stage, is fundamentally better than any configuration where loudspeakers are behind or beside open microphones. No amount of EQ corrects a geometrically bad speaker placement.
Match your amplifier's continuous (RMS) power rating to the speaker's continuous power handling at the same impedance. A ratio of 1:1 to 1.5:1 amplifier-to-speaker is a safe working range — enough to reproduce transients cleanly without operating the amplifier at the edge of its linear range. The most common mistake is underpowering. When an amplifier runs out of power before the desired listening level is reached, it clips — the output waveform flattens, converting clean audio into a signal rich in high-frequency harmonics. Those harmonics pass through the crossover into the compression driver, which cannot absorb them as heat. Tweeters damaged by clipped amplifiers are almost always blamed on too much power but are almost always caused by too little. Impedance must match the amplifier's rated output. An amplifier rated at 500W into 8 ohms will typically deliver close to 1000W into 4 ohms — but only if rated to drive a 4-ohm load. Running an amplifier below its minimum impedance rating risks thermal damage to the output stage. Always check the minimum impedance specification before wiring multiple cabinets on a single channel.
A point source loudspeaker radiates from a single acoustic centre, and level falls off at 6 dB for every doubling of distance as energy spreads across an ever-larger spherical surface. A line array assembles multiple drivers in a vertical column so they behave as a single coherent line source; in the near field, level falls at only 3 dB per doubling of distance because energy spreads across a cylindrical surface rather than a spherical one. This difference is significant over long throw distances. Beyond the level falloff advantage, line arrays provide vertical directional control through the coherent interference of their stacked drivers. A curved J-hang allows the system engineer to distribute vertical energy across the audience plane, concentrating output where it is needed and reducing energy aimed at the ceiling or floor. Line arrays are not universally superior. In small rooms the minimum throw distance means front rows can be in an uncontrolled coverage zone. Point source loudspeakers cover short distances well, deploy without specialist rigging, and cost less. The correct choice depends on venue geometry, throw distance, and budget.
Stage monitors exist for one reason: performer confidence. But the tool you choose to deliver that confidence shapes the acoustics of the entire show.
A DSP processor is not a magic box. Every parameter you set has a physical consequence. Understanding each processing block is the difference between a great-sounding system and a loud one.
Low-frequency sound is omnidirectional by nature. How you position your subwoofers is the single most powerful tool you have for shaping the reverberant field.
The choice between a two-way and three-way loudspeaker system is rarely made with full understanding of what each driver is physically being asked to do, where the crossover points fall in the spectrum, and what happens in the transition between drivers when the engineering is not rigorous. This article examines the mechanics, the tradeoffs, and the conditions under which each architecture is the right answer.
SSOUNDS provided full audio production for the Koinonia Global Annual Convention, delivering clear, powerful sound to 30,000 worshippers across the main arena and overflow zones.
A permanent AV upgrade across four ballrooms and twelve breakout rooms at Nigeria's most prestigious hotel, including distributed audio, LED displays and control systems.
Full AVL production for the Enugu State Government's annual economic summit, covering a main plenary for 1,200 delegates and eight breakout conference rooms simultaneously.
Late-night system tuning before a big show.
Touring rig deployment across six West African cities.
Automatic feedback suppression has come a long way. How modern AI-driven systems like Alpha Sound AI detect and kill feedback before it builds.
A hands-on training day for church sound teams.
Hybrid events, distanced layouts, faster load-ins and resilient supply chains — the operational changes that outlasted the lockdowns.
70/100V ceiling speakers, mixer-amps and column arrays.
From SuperRack and SoundGrid to the channel strips and reverbs FOH engineers reach for first — how plugins changed the live mix.
How machine learning is starting to reshape system design, coverage prediction and live mixing — and what it means for the next decade of live events.
It depends on room volume, seat count, reverberation and music style more than seat count alone. As a rough guide, a 200–500 seat sanctuary is well served by a compact line array or point-source pair plus a sub; 1,000+ seats usually needs a proper line array with cardioid subs. We do a free acoustic assessment to spec it precisely.
Why commercial installs use high-voltage lines.
A quick fact on cylindrical wave propagation.
