Line column system
LC System
Line columns for speech and music in reverberant rooms and open spaces, chosen by the depth of the audience, the reverberation of the room and whether the column lives indoors or out.
LC stands for Line Column. Drivers stacked in a vertical line that radiates as one line source, so the vertical pattern is set by the length of the column: energy lands on the listeners and stays off the reverberant ceilings and walls around them. The outdoor W models carry the same principle in IP66 die-cast aluminium, and the D models carry their own amplifier and take Dante audio and PoE power on one network cable.
The LC System is the SSOUNDS line column range: passive columns from a 375 mm speech column to a 1,463 mm weatherised column, slim aluminium columns 65 mm wide, and Dante models that take audio and power over one network cable, each a vertical line of drivers radiating as one source. The horizontal pattern stays wide, between 100° and 160° across the range, so one column covers a broad block of listeners. The vertical pattern is narrow, so the energy lands on the people rather than on the ceiling, the dome or the far wall.
That is what makes a column the right tool for a reverberant room. Intelligibility depends on how much direct sound reaches a listener compared with the reverberant sound arriving from every surface. A loudspeaker that sprays energy upward feeds the reverberation; a line column keeps it down where the listeners are. The longer the line, the lower in frequency it holds that vertical control and the further it carries before its level falls away, which is why the long columns serve deep rooms and the short ones serve small rooms.
Choose by room first, then by model. The published vertical coverage of each model is the figure to design with, and the tables below put every model side by side. Each model is quoted rather than listed: add the ones you need to a quote, or send us the room and we will specify the columns.
Length sets the vertical control
Coupling drivers in a line is what narrows the vertical pattern, and a longer line holds that control down to a lower frequency. The model name says how long the line is: the LC16.3 is sixteen 3″ drivers.
Wide horizontally, narrow vertically
Horizontal coverage runs from 100° to 160° across the range, so one column covers a wide block of seats, while the narrow vertical pattern keeps energy off reflective ceilings and domes.
Bass columns in the same footprint
The LC70 and LC100 each have a bass column of the same width, the LC70B and LC100B, so more low-frequency output means a second column beside the top rather than a box on the floor.
IP66 where the column lives outdoors
The W models are die-cast aluminium with a sprayed protective finish and an IP66 rating, for platforms, forecourts, courtyards and the call to prayer. The wooden indoor models carry no ingress rating and belong indoors.
Compare every model
Published figures from each model's specification. Choose a model for its full data sheet. Bars show cabinet height to scale.
Speech columns
3″ full-range drivers in lines of four to sixteen, for speech in reverberant rooms. The length follows the depth of the room.
Four 3″ drivers in a 375 mm cabinet, 100° × 30°: short-throw speech in small reverberant rooms.
- Drivers
- 4 × 3″ full-range, 0.75″ voice coil
- Frequency response
- 120 Hz – 20 kHz (−10 dB)
- Coverage
- 100° (H) × 30° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 113 dB continuous @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- Indoor
- Height
- 375 mm
- Weight
- 4.1 kg / 9 lb
Eight 3″ drivers, 100° × 18°: speech in halls, offices and long atria.
- Drivers
- 8 × 3″ full-range, 0.75″ voice coil
- Frequency response
- 110 Hz – 18 kHz (−10 dB)
- Coverage
- 100° (H) × 18° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 118 dB continuous · 124 dB peak @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- Indoor
- Height
- 720 mm
- Weight
- 8.6 kg / 19 lb
Sixteen 3″ drivers in a 1,401 mm cylindrical column, 127° horizontal: announcements and speech in airports, stations and mosques.
- Drivers
- 16 × 3″ full-range, 0.75″ voice coil
- Frequency response
- 106 Hz – 16 kHz (−10 dB)
- Coverage
- 127° (H) × 24° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 122 dB continuous · 128 dB peak @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- Indoor
- Height
- 1,401 mm
- Weight
- 16 kg / 35 lb
Speech and music columns
Larger drivers, and two-way models with 1″ high-frequency drivers, for rooms where music matters as much as speech.
Two-way, eight 4.5″ drivers with eight 1″ high-frequency drivers, 129 dB peak: conference halls, auditoria and worship.
- Drivers
- LF 8 × 4.5″ cone drivers, 1.5″ voice coil · HF 8 × 1″ drivers, 1″ voice coil
- Frequency response
- 112 Hz – 19 kHz (−10 dB)
- Coverage
- 128° (H) × 27° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 123 dB continuous · 129 dB peak @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- Indoor
- Height
- 969 mm
- Weight
- 13.8 kg / 30 lb
Two-way, sixteen 1″ drivers over four 5.5″, 131 dB peak. Pairs with the LC70B bass column.
- Drivers
- LF 4 × 5.5″ cone drivers, 1.73″ voice coil · HF 16 × 1″ drivers, 1″ voice coil
- Frequency response
- 106 Hz – 19 kHz (−10 dB)
- Coverage
- 135° (H) × 30° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 125 dB continuous · 131 dB peak @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- Indoor
- Height
- 880 mm
- Weight
- 15.2 kg / 34 lb
The largest LC column: twenty-four 1″ drivers over six 6.5″, 65 Hz to 16 kHz, 134 dB peak. Pairs with the LC100B.
- Drivers
- LF 6 × 6.5″ cone drivers, 2″ voice coil · HF 24 × 1″ drivers, 1″ voice coil
- Frequency response
- 65 Hz – 16 kHz (−10 dB)
- Coverage
- 132° (H) × 23° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 128 dB continuous · 134 dB peak @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- Indoor
- Height
- 1,022 mm
- Weight
- 25 kg / 55 lb
Dante PoE columns
The 3″ speech columns with their own amplifier and processing, taking Dante audio, PoE power and control on one network cable.
Four 3″ drivers, 100° × 30°: small rooms on the building network, with no amplifier rack.
- Drivers
- 4 × 3″ full-range, 0.75″ voice coil
- Frequency response
- 120 Hz – 20 kHz (−10 dB)
- Coverage
- 100° (H) × 30° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 110 dB @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- Indoor
- Height
- 375 mm
- Weight
- 4.3 kg / 9 lb
Eight 3″ drivers, 100° × 18°: lecture rooms, offices and atria on the building network.
- Drivers
- 8 × 3″ full-range, 0.75″ voice coil
- Frequency response
- 110 Hz – 18 kHz (−10 dB)
- Coverage
- 100° (H) × 18° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 112 dB @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- Indoor
- Height
- 720 mm
- Weight
- 8.8 kg / 19 lb
Bass columns
Column-format low-frequency partners, the same width as the tops they extend.
Four 5.5″ drivers, the bass column for the LC70 in the same column footprint.
- Drivers
- 4 × 5.5″ cone drivers
- Frequency response
- 106 Hz – 1.2 kHz (−10 dB)
- Coverage
- 130° (H) × 130° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 125 dB continuous @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- Indoor
- Height
- 695 mm
- Weight
- 18 kg / 40 lb
Six 6.5″ drivers, 65 Hz to 1 kHz, the bass column for the LC100 in the same 1,022 mm cabinet size.
- Drivers
- 6 × 6.5″ cone drivers, 2″ voice coil
- Frequency response
- 65 Hz – 1 kHz (−10 dB)
- Coverage
- 135° (H) × 135° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 126 dB continuous @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- Indoor
- Height
- 1,022 mm
- Weight
- 20 kg / 44 lb
Weatherised W columns
IP66 die-cast aluminium with a sprayed protective finish, 160° × 10°, for platforms, forecourts, courtyards and the call to prayer.
Four 4.5″ drivers: covered walkways, entrances and courtyards.
- Drivers
- 4 × 4.5″ full-range, 1″ voice coil
- Frequency response
- 100 Hz – 16 kHz (−6 dB)
- Coverage
- 160° (H) × 10° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 117 dB continuous · 120 dB peak @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- IP66
- Height
- 546 mm
- Weight
- 7 kg / 15 lb
Nine 4.5″ drivers, 128 dB peak: long platforms, courtyards and the call to prayer.
- Drivers
- 9 × 4.5″ full-range, 1″ voice coil
- Frequency response
- 100 Hz – 16 kHz (−6 dB)
- Coverage
- 160° (H) × 10° (V)
- Maximum SPL
- 125 dB continuous · 128 dB peak @ 1 m
- Ingress rating
- IP66
- Height
- 1,100 mm
- Weight
- 14.8 kg / 33 lb
Which column for which room
A longer column holds its vertical control lower in frequency and carries further, so the length follows the depth of the room. Coverage distances depend on the room itself, which is why we model them per project rather than publish one figure.
Domed prayer halls
A dome returns every watt aimed at it. Use the longest indoor column the wall allows, mounted so its narrow vertical pattern covers the prayer rows and misses the dome: LC8.3 or LC16.3 for speech, and LC8.4H, LC70 or LC100 where recitation needs more bandwidth.
Churches and long naves
Long naves reward long columns. LC8.3 or LC16.3 on the side walls carry speech towards the back without exciting the roof; where the programme is music as much as speech, the two-way LC8.4H, the LC70 with an LC70B, or the LC100 with an LC100B.
Airport concourses and terminals
Concourses are long, hard and noisy. Long columns keep announcements intelligible over the background noise: LC16.3 along the concourse, LC8.4H in gate lounges, and the W models at the kerbside, where the column is exposed to the weather.
Railway platforms and stations
Platforms are long, open and exposed, which is what the IP66 W columns are built for: LC9.4W along the platform and LC4.4W at gates and entrances. Inside the station hall, the indoor speech columns.
Courtyards, forecourts and the call to prayer
Outdoors the column has to survive the weather and reach further. LC9.4W is the high-output W model at 128 dB peak; LC4.4W, at 120 dB peak, suits covered walkways and smaller courtyards.
Conference rooms and lecture halls
Smaller rooms need a shorter line. LC4.3 for the smallest reverberant rooms, LC8.3 for meeting rooms and lecture halls, and the two-way LC8.4H for conference halls and auditoria where music playback matters as much as speech.
A quote for the whole system
Send us the room: its size, the audience and what it has to do. Our engineers choose the columns, the amplification and the mounting, and reply with a written quote. Prices are given on a written quote, never listed.