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It’s easy to take for granted technologies that make everyday communication possible and positively impact our lives, so integrated have they become in our public and private spaces. Think of the mood-setting music in a retail shop that gets your head bobbing, the morning announcements in school corridors that pump you up for the big game, and the sacred music ushering you into a church service.
All of these examples require a distributed loudspeaker system for the intended audience to hear properly. Distributed loudspeaker systems work by connecting multiple loudspeakers to a simple high-powered amplifier and positioning them throughout the desired amplification area. Hardware and switches on the loudspeakers mounted on walls or ceilings allow the source sound to be adjusted to levels appropriate to the moment and situation.
While relatively easy to set up and manage, understanding distributed loudspeaker systems requires an education in the basics of how they operate, what their capabilities are, how sound behaves in different spaces, and which type of system fits each situation. Here’s where to begin.
With a large array of loudspeakers, it’s natural to assume there must also be a massive bundle of cables and a huge stack of powered amplifiers to power them. In fact, one cable and one amplifier — the same size as your home theatre AV receiver — can do the job, saving significant time and money during configuration and installation.
The secret is the constant-voltage system, which works very differently than conventional sound systems found in theaters, where each loudspeaker is wired to its own amplifier channel. Instead, this kind of system connects loudspeakers like strands of holiday lights, and each one has a step-down transformer that converts the 70-volt or 100-volt output — depending on the host location’s electrical network — to match the impedance and wattage of the next. This output capability allows one speaker cable to loop a network of loudspeakers together and minimizes power loss over the cables.
Constant voltage is achieved when a power supply sets a uniform voltage across its entire load range. This lets it maintain a constant, uniform, and predictable level regardless of variations in current or load resistance. An ideal source using constant voltage should have little to no internal resistance, no current flows when the circuit is not loaded, and constant voltage regardless of any fluctuation in current.
Achieving the benefits of a loudspeaker system requires a bit of math: Multiply the number of loudspeakers with the wattage of each to find the total output required by the amplifier. For instance, if 100 loudspeakers are each 5 watts, your total will be 500 watts. You’ll then need an amplifier that can reach that. In fact, you’ll probably want to go beyond as merely matching the watts leaves no headroom to add more loudspeakers later. Instead, add 25% to the total. In this example, that means a minimum output of 625 watts is the ideal.
The calculation also depends on how high you set the wattage on the loudspeaker. Every 70- or 100-volt loudspeaker will have a tap switch with a wattage identified, such as 2.5W, 5W, 10W, and so on. This allows you to set the sound level of each loudspeaker to suit your needs and equipment. Just remember that each time you double the wattage, the loudness to listeners increases by three decibels.
Whatever your use case, Bose Professional can provide the equipment to support it.
Perhaps nothing can transform a space more dynamically than a high-quality distributed sound system. Knowing one size does not fit all, Bose Professional offers a distributed loudspeaker system to fit just about any space imaginable, both sonically and aesthetically. In each space and with this equipment, all voices are enhanced, goals are met — and success is assured.
Distributed loudspeaker systems offer attractive audio options for large retail and gathering sites like schools and churches.
