Many meetings take place in hockey arenas, indoor soccer complexes, airplane hangers and other very large buildings with hard reflective surfaces. These venues present challenges for delivering intelligible audio to the audience.

2. Large Rooms Often
Used For Meetings:
 Hockey arenas (Inland AV
is a Canadian company so
we work in lots of hockey
arenas)
 Indoor soccer complexes
 Historic buildings
 Town hall meetings on a
factory floor or airplane
hangers.
Large Venue Meeting Audio Overview
www.inlandAV.ca
Gala in a field house brings intelligible audio challenges
All of these rooms have a
large cubic footage and
hard reflective surfaces.

3. Large Venue
Audio Issues:
 Intelligible audio
 Even volume
throughout the
large room
 Too much natural
reverb from the hard
surfaces.
Intelligible Audio Challenge
www.inlandAV.caPolitical meeting in an indoor soccer complex

4. Even Volume
Throughout the Room:
 Large speaker stacks at
the side of the stage is not
the answer
 Part of presentation might
call for loud music with
thumping bass. This can be
effective in energizing the
audience but we are focusing
on the intelligibility of the
speeches .
Even Volume
www.inlandAV.caSections of corporate events can be loud but intelligibility is most important

5. Even Volume
Throughout the
Room:
 Too loud for the
first rows of
people
 A large speaker
stack moves too
much air in the
room creating
“muddy” sound
towards the back
of the room.
Large Venue Meeting Audio Overview
www.inlandAV.caHigh ceilings with reflective surfaces present audio challenges

6. Intelligible Audio
Considerations:
 Use several sets of
small speakers
throughout the room
 Minimizes the
movement of air in the
entire room.
Small Speakers on Stands
www.inlandAV.ca
Small speaker on a stand

7. Working at the
Speed of Sound:
 In dry air at 20 °C
(68 °F), the speed of sound
is 343 metres per second
(1,125 feet per second)
 The audio signal travels at
the speed of light through
the speaker cables
(299,792,458 metres per
second)
 This requires time
alignment to slow down the
signal going through the
cable.
Working at the Speed of Sound
www.inlandAV.ca

8. Working at the Speed of Sound
www.inlandAV.ca
Signal
From
Amplifiers
110 feet of distance
between speakers
Sound travels 110 feet in 98.2 milliseconds
This is more than enough distance to require time-delay.
Reinforced sound has better intelligibility.
Signal travels at speed of light in cables

9. Red lines indicate rows of speakers
CAD of Large Venue Meeting Floor Plan
www.inlandAV.ca
Direction the sound is travelling

10. Line Array Technology:
 Focus the sound energy on
the audience and not the
walls and the space above
the audience
 Line array systems have a
further throw distance
compared to traditional
speaker systems.
Line Array Audio Technology
www.inlandAV.ca

11. Large Venue
Meeting Summary:
 Keep the overall volume
as low as possible
 Use more small speakers
and time align the rows
 Employ line array
technology to direct the
sound field.
Large Venue Meeting Audio
www.inlandAV.ca