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[sam saponaro]

I know its a vague question without acoustic environment info.But I'm trying to figure out roughly how many people my little 1 top 1 bottom aside band system will cover as a general rule of thumb for the venues I play(and occasionaly run sound at)befor I need to add on(either dual PA or rent/borrow stuff)
I'll be using a pair of Eaw fr159z and a pair of Eaw SB180zr.Each FR powered by its own Crown CE1000 seeing 900W@8ohm bridge mono.And each SB180z seeing 1325W each from its own Crown CE2000@8ohm bridge mono. Tops up in the air horn over my head(6ft)
Dbx 223Xl X-over,Ashly 31 band EQ between amps and mixer.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

I know its a vague question without acoustic environment info.But I'm trying to figure out roughly how many people my little 1 top 1 bottom aside band system will cover as a general rule of thumb for the venues I play(and occasionaly run sound at)befor I need to add on(either dual PA or rent/borrow stuff)
I'll be using a pair of Eaw fr159z and a pair of Eaw SB180zr.Each FR powered by its own Crown CE1000 seeing 900W@8ohm bridge mono.And each SB180z seeing 1325W each from its own Crown CE2000@8ohm bridge mono. Tops up in the air horn over my head(6ft)
Dbx 223Xl X-over,Ashly 31 band EQ between amps and mixer.

A lot depends on the level desired for the style of music.

2500 to 3500 square feet would be a good guess.  Now figure out how many people you can cram in there.

[Ivan Beaver]

I know its a vague question without acoustic environment info.But I'm trying to figure out roughly how many people my little 1 top 1 bottom aside band system will cover as a general rule of thumb for the venues I play(and occasionaly run sound at)befor I need to add on(either dual PA or rent/borrow stuff)
I'll be using a pair of Eaw fr159z and a pair of Eaw SB180zr.Each FR powered by its own Crown CE1000 seeing 900W@8ohm bridge mono.And each SB180z seeing 1325W each from its own Crown CE2000@8ohm bridge mono. Tops up in the air horn over my head(6ft)
Dbx 223Xl X-over,Ashly 31 band EQ between amps and mixer.

Are you playing light jazz or heavy metal?

[Tim Perry]

Most guys just try bigger and bigger things until the rig blows up.

[sam saponaro]

Are you playing light jazz or heavy metal?

My band plays Southern rock,Classic rock styles.
I run sound sometime for a couple rock bands,classic rock and modern down tuned radio stuff.

[chuck clark]

Your tops are good for roughly 150 people. Your subs are good for about half that. (need to double your subs)

Consider this: The average Rock drummer has a 22" kick drum head moving about 1/2" to 3/4" when he stomps the kick pedal so to "reinforce" that you better have at least that much cone area moving w/ at least that much excursion or your gonna come up short. 30 yrs of experimenting has resulted in the realization that it generally requires a minimum of 2 good 18s per side properly powered to "get r done" unless the band plays at VERY controlled volume. Good luck w/ that!
heh, heh.                              Chuck

[Patrick Tracy]

Consider this: The average Rock drummer has a 22" kick drum head moving about 1/2" to 3/4" when he stomps the kick pedal so to "reinforce" that you better have at least that much cone area moving w/ at least that much excursion or your gonna come up short.

Hm. The entire kick head doesn't move that much. Excursion will be greatest where the beater strikes and/or the center of the head, but progressively less and approaching none toward the edge. And the kick head isn't necessarily all moving in the same direction at the same time the way a speaker does (should). I don't see drum head's output corresponding all that directly to that of a speaker with the same diameter and excursion.

This makes me want to see some SPL/frequency measurements of a typical kick directly and miced through a sub, done as a transfer function with the acoustic sound of the kick instead of a loop back as the reference signal. But most software uses sweeps so you'd need some sort of measurement that was independent of the source.

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

Hm. The entire kick head doesn't move that much. Excursion will be greatest where the beater strikes and/or the center of the head, but progressively less and approaching none toward the edge. And the kick head isn't necessarily all moving in the same direction at the same time the way a speaker does (should). I don't see drum head's output corresponding all that directly to that of a speaker with the same diameter and excursion.

This makes me want to see some SPL/frequency measurements of a typical kick directly and miced through a sub, done as a transfer function with the acoustic sound of the kick instead of a loop back as the reference signal. But most software uses sweeps so you'd need some sort of measurement that was independent of the source.

+1 - that's a strange metric.  The acoustic noise off a kick drum is frequently the quietest part of the drum kit.  I have absolutely no problem getting significant reinforcement from a pair of single 18" subs - that's going to be 20dB more than the acoustic volume of the kick, at least.  Whether that's enough for any particular gig depends on factors other than the size of the kick drum.

[James A. Griffin]

I know its a vague question without acoustic environment info.But I'm trying to figure out roughly how many people my little 1 top 1 bottom aside band system will cover as a general rule of thumb for the venues I play(and occasionaly run sound at)befor I need to add on(either dual PA or rent/borrow stuff)
I'll be using a pair of Eaw fr159z and a pair of Eaw SB180zr.Each FR powered by its own Crown CE1000 seeing 900W@8ohm bridge mono.And each SB180z seeing 1325W each from its own Crown CE2000@8ohm bridge mono. Tops up in the air horn over my head(6ft)
Dbx 223Xl X-over,Ashly 31 band EQ between amps and mixer.

The iPhone App "EstiGig" is made for just such calculations.    When I put your data in, it gives me the following results:

327.4  People if they are aged 24 or  younger.
275.8  People if they are over age 24.

This assumes speakers are placed 2' above the listener's heads.

[Art Welter]

I'll be using a pair of Eaw fr159z and a pair of Eaw SB180zr.

Sam,

"Coverage" is simply how loud at what distance, and "how loud" is acceptable for the audience.
There have been many instances of in crowds in excess of 100,000 being "covered" with a system having no more output than yours is capable of.

Your Eaw fr159z speakers are capable of around 127 dB at one meter.
Outdoors, with a 6 dB loss per doubling of distance, that works out to 91 dB at 64 meters, 208 feet.
Down the center, you can add a bit to that figure as the two speakers response combines, 45 degree off axis, -6 dB.
Indoors in a reflective large room, the sound could be louder than that at distance, while conversely, in a small low ceiling room the sound can be absorbed by people and furnishings and may drop off faster than the inverse distance law would predict.
I have often used more power in small clubs than in large ballrooms to achieve the same SPL.

90 dBA slow is the OSHA permissible level for 8 hour exposure.
For 15 minutes, the OSHA permissible level is 115 dB, which your speakers could do at 4 meters, (13 feet).

Your system could exceed the OSHA permissible 8 hour exposure level over an area covering in excess of 20,000 square feet, at 4 square feet per person that would be 5000 people.

Art

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