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[willardo c. mesa]

to prosound forum members,
i am an electronics designer in the philippines, working in a provincial government unit. one of the less used aspect of my profession is the sound system designing. so i am seeking the opinions of the local equipment suppliers in my designs. for several times, these suppliers are specifying different ratings and quantities of equipments for a particular use. asking them on how they have arrived at such recommendations almost always never been replied. understandably because of trade secrets (or maybe they themselves do not make calculations).
in most instances, i rather not recommend suppliers with so many trade secrets being hideen from the buyer's engineers such as this writer.
to untangle some knots, im reading the audioclopedia by glen balou, yamaha sound reinf. handbook, jbl manuals, audio engineers pocket book, etc but somehow the books themselves do not reconcile.
what materials are you recommending to be read? and what engineering aids are available for the amateurs?
truly,
wmesa777
antipolo city, philippines

[Brad Weber]

Willardo,

What is your end goal?  Many people spend years of study and practice and tens of thousands of dollars on education, resources and tools to become competent sound system designers.  That is often not practical for those for whom that is not their primary role or career, thus on many, perhaps even most, government projects here in the US it is common to hire a qualified Consultant to design audio and video systems just as you might hire an Architect or any other design professional.  A Consultant would not provide the equipment or install the system, only work for you in preparing system design documents (which may be complete design drawings and specifications or just a more complete description of the work and project conditions) to be bid on by competent dealers, contractors or suppliers.  I don't know if that is an option, but it is a common approach here and in some other areas of the world.

As far as other resources, books such as "Audio Systems Design and Installation" by Phil Giddings, "Sound System Engineering" by Don Davis and Gene Patronis and "Sound Systems: Design and Optimization" by Bob McCarthy get more into the nuts and bolts of system design and installation.  However, these are more advanced treatments of the subject and typically require already having a good basic understanding of audio in general.  They are also just books, they can't answer your questions or offer further explanation than what is presented.  For that, there are numerous system design courses offered at trade shows such as AES and InfoComm.  Syn-Aud-Con offers several very well respected audio seminars including a system design seminar, the last time I took that particular seminar there were several international attendees.