There’s a lot to worry about when you’re planning your wedding. The food and the invitations, the venue and the dress. They all are important to ensuring you have a perfect celebration of your love. But one very crucial, yet often overlooked, aspect of your wedding is the sound system. Without a proper speaker set up your guests may be left straining to hear the ceremony and reception, and the entire evening will feel disappointing. At DJ Cutt Entertainment we have years of experience putting together sound packages that are both effective and affordable. Today we’re looking at our approach to speaker set up and what you need to be aware of, whether you’re hiring a vendor or putting together the system yourself.
Unfortunately, setting up a sound system for a large event like a wedding is not one size fits all. What might work great in a hotel ballroom won’t be appropriate for an outdoor clubhouse. If you’re going to hire a vendor it’s important that they have the experience and flexibility to adapt to various locales and bring the right equipment for your environment and desired atmosphere.
For instance, if you’re having an outdoor ceremony and/or reception, you need to have gear that can handle some adverse weather. If it sprinkles thirty minutes before the ceremony, that shouldn’t be enough to force everyone indoors (especially here in Oregon), but if you don’t have water resistant speakers, it will have your AV person scrambling at exactly the wrong moment.
Both the size and shape of your venue matter. A long narrow hall needs to have a very different setup than a circular or square room. Whether you’re working with a vendor or setting up the sound system yourself, you’ll need to take the dimensions of the space into account when selecting which equipment to use.
A poorly thought out audio system will likely have one of two fatal flaws. Either the sound is going to be too soft, so only the people close to the speakers (or stage if there is no sound system) will be able to hear, or it will be too loud, meaning the people closest to the speakers will find it unbearable.
When you only have a few speakers, they will probably be placed near the front and pointed towards the audience. If you want the guests in the back to be able to hear, you’ll need to crank up the volume to the point it becomes too loud for the people in the front. This is a no-win situation, and why you need to rely on speaker zoning.
What we mean by speaker zoning is a set up that involves placing speakers throughout the room. Each unit is strategically located to cover one area or zone of your seating area. This way you can keep the sound and music at a reasonable volume and everyone will still be able to hear your speeches and toasts.
In many cases, the reception and dance floor will be in the same location. In some instances, your ceremony will be in that place as well. That means you need a sound system that will work for everything, including the reciting of your vows and other portions of the ceremony, any announcements that need to be made, your toasts and speeches, and both incidental and dance music.
Obviously, that’s a lot of different sound requirements. You need a system in place that’s versatile and works well for all these different scenarios. Many people work with their wedding DJ to put in a sound system that’s prepared to handle everything.
At DJ Cutt Entertainment, we’ve put in sound systems in wedding venues throughout Oregon and Washington. Whether your wedding is at a hotel in Portland, or on an estate near the Cascade Mountains, we’ve got the gear you need.
Contact us today to learn more about our sound packages.
We are a full-service entertainment company in Portland that provides its clients with top-quality service and leaves them feeling like they made the right decision in choosing us. With our wide range of services, we strive to meet your needs and exceed your expectations. We have extensive experience in DJing, videography, and live streaming, as well as other aspects of live events such as lighting design, sound engineering, and more!
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