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Author Topic: suggestions for pre-concert announcement system?  (Read 6489 times)

charlie post

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suggestions for pre-concert announcement system?
« on: May 19, 2011, 01:08:32 PM »

hi,
the venue i work for is seeking a way to playback a pre-recorded announcement with emergency instructions before each concert.  we already have an emergency announce / Voice of God system in place and would ideally integrate this into it.  any suggestions for units to play it back? 

a colleague did some initial research and heard MacKenzie products are the best for this,
e.g. http://www.fullcompass.com/product/232004.html

but looking over what's available, he thinks the Radio Design Labs device is better:
http://www.fullcompass.com/product/250383.html

...since it has full frequency response (not telephone quality like the MacKenzie), external program input, so we could just put it in the signal chain right after the emergency announce mic-pre, without needing any other mixer to combine it into our system

what is good and bad about the system at your venue?

cheers,
-charlie
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Brad Weber

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Re: suggestions for pre-concert announcement system?
« Reply #1 on: May 19, 2011, 05:06:26 PM »

In terms of the products and the content and operation, are any of the "emergency" aspects you noted in your system actually approved for "emergency" or life safety use?  Have they been reviewed and approved for that use by the AHJ?  At least in the US very few performance audio systems are technically approved for life safety annunciation applications, in fact it is much more common for them to be required to be powered off, muted or otherwise disabled during an actual life safety emergency in order to avoid interfering with the life safety annunciation systems.
 
So what you're probably looking for is simply a device to playback a pre-recorded announcement before a show.  If that is just voice then I wouldn't worry too much about the response, not only does speech, and especially the spectrum most relevant to intelligibility, represent a limited frequency response, but the specified frequency response is not necessarily representative of 'telephone quality'.  For just a single message of limited length RDL, Mackenzie, Alcorn-McBride, TOA and others offer products that would probably work just fine.  Some aspects to consider may be how you trigger the message and whether you might want to have more than one message.
 
Added: What is meant by "emergency" use is an important distinction.  Using the house sound system to make lost child announcements, page people, even announcing tornadoes and so on is common as those are situations where the building life safety system is not involved.  However, if the life safety system is activated by a fire or other event then that system and the related aural and visual annunciation, including any voice evacuation announcements, have to take priority.  So unless your house system is specifically designed to be part of the life safety system (is a monitored system, has been shown to meet the related intelligibility and level requirements, usues approved messages and so forth) and specifically approved by the AHJ for that use, it should not be seen or used as part of the life safety system.  But that does not mean that there are not other "emergencies" for which it may be used.
« Last Edit: May 20, 2011, 07:00:28 AM by Brad Weber »
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Hal Bissinger/COMSYSTEC

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Re: suggestions for pre-concert announcement system?
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2011, 11:29:52 PM »

... we already have an emergency announce / Voice of God system in place and would ideally integrate this into it.

I don't think you want to do that. The life/safety system is just for emergencies and activating it should kill the normal sound system. So the question is- is there a performance sound system in place? If so the usual thing to do is to use a commercial CD player that can be cued up to play the announcement off a CD or USB drive and you really do want it to sound good.  Once you have it you'll find other uses for it also..
 
-Hal
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Joe Vitale

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Re: suggestions for pre-concert announcement system?
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2012, 01:36:10 PM »

The Mackenzie Laboratories products have High Fidelity systems along with Telephone quality systems.  The M3 and MacFi products are both 15 K and 20 K systems.

www.macklabs.com


hi,
the venue i work for is seeking a way to playback a pre-recorded announcement with emergency instructions before each concert.  we already have an emergency announce / Voice of God system in place and would ideally integrate this into it.  any suggestions for units to play it back? 

a colleague did some initial research and heard MacKenzie products are the best for this,
e.g. http://www.fullcompass.com/product/232004.html

but looking over what's available, he thinks the Radio Design Labs device is better:
http://www.fullcompass.com/product/250383.html

...since it has full frequency response (not telephone quality like the MacKenzie), external program input, so we could just put it in the signal chain right after the emergency announce mic-pre, without needing any other mixer to combine it into our system

what is good and bad about the system at your venue?

cheers,
-charlie
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charlie post

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Re: suggestions for pre-concert announcement system?
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2012, 01:53:48 PM »

thanks all for your replies. while it is a bit of an old thread, we're always looking for ways to improve things.

Brad, no this isn't officially a system designed for emergencies per se. it is just a pre-concert announcement detailing what to do in case of an emergency. so we've called it the emergency announce system to distinguish it from the VOG mic. besides i believe the announcement itself was a legal requirement for the venue.

anyway, we did install the RDL system, and it works fine. it doesn't sound great, and we notice the HF rolloff when we're in the house (our main venue is indoor/outdoor). however, the functionality of it is great - we set it up to be triggered on a lockable switch at the stage manager position. as long as we have the amp. end of things setup correctly, it's idiot proof.

well thanks again for the replies.  hopefully this thread will be useful to others.
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Joe Vitale

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Re: suggestions for pre-concert announcement system?
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2012, 05:46:51 PM »

Audio performance for the M3 system is 20 - 20 K and can load files directly from a USB key to internal memory.   A large number of messages can be stored and activated as needed via contact closure or rs-232 commands.









Quote from: charlie post

link=topic=2634.msg1274081#msg1274081 date=1330109628
thanks all for your replies. while it is a bit of an old thread, we're always looking for ways to improve things.

Brad, no this isn't officially a system designed for emergencies per se. it is just a pre-concert announcement detailing what to do in case of an emergency. so we've called it the emergency announce system to distinguish it from the VOG mic. besides i believe the announcement itself was a legal requirement for the venue.

anyway, we did install the RDL system, and it works fine. it doesn't sound great, and we notice the HF rolloff when we're in the house (our main venue is indoor/outdoor). however, the functionality of it is great - we set it up to be triggered on a lockable switch at the stage manager position. as long as we have the amp. end of things setup correctly, it's idiot proof.

well thanks again for the replies.  hopefully this thread will be useful to others.
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Brad Weber

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Re: suggestions for pre-concert announcement system?
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2012, 09:34:23 PM »

Audio performance for the M3 system is 20 - 20 K and can load files directly from a USB key to internal memory.   A large number of messages can be stored and activated as needed via contact closure or rs-232 commands.
Joe, the forum rules state that "If you are affiliated or work for/with a dealer or manufacturer, you must state this in your post. A simple line in your Sig (I own XYZ company, or I work as a rep for x and y) will suffice." so it should be identified that you are in sales for MacKenzie Labs.

It should probably also be noted that list price on the RDL FP-MR2 is $379 while according to the online product guide the MacKenzie Labs M3 series products start at $1,622, so this seems to be comparing products in rather different price ranges.
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: suggestions for pre-concert announcement system?
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2012, 09:34:23 PM »


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