The RF Venue RF PA Extension Kit was recently used to simplify the setup for a challenging corporate event. Morgan Sound, a full-service production company based in Lynnwood, WA, worked with RF Venue sales director Adam Brass and director of technical customer support Clayton Young to arrange a test of the RF PA Extension Kit to wirelessly feed satellite loudspeakers for use when running physical wiring is time and labor consuming, difficult or even impossible.
[Can You Please Keep It Down?]
“Our specific first use case was a corporate show that needed one main room to feed a secondary room, which both then needed to be able to feed (at varying times) a distributed system of speakers on stands scattered throughout a lobby pre-function area,” said Morgan Sound project manager Kristopher Schmitt. “The problems we faced included the distance between the various FOH locations for each room and the lobby delay speakers; well over 200 feet each.”
No wired connections between rooms were available in the venue, and there was little to no clearance under doors. Additionally, the client did not want cable paths crossing walkways in the lobby.
In previous productions at the venue, lengthy and bulky install-grade cables had to be run through staff access areas and under the few doors with clearance, meaning “lots of cable taped down on the floor,” said Schmitt. A wireless monitor system designed for IEMs had been used for wireless point-to-point connections, with only unbalanced 3.5mm headphone jacks for connectivity, and no available delay to time-align speakers.
Using the RF Venue PA Extension Kit, room #1 had a wired back-hallway feed to room No. 2, the RF PA transmitter was set up at room No. 2 FOH, and two RF PA receivers were used in the lobby to feed two speaker zones. The delay for each zone was set at the zone’s receiver to time align the speakers, connected via balanced, line-level XLRs, with satellite speakers at the room No. 2 entrance. The RF PA receivers were “mounted directly to the zone speakers; super clean,” said Schmitt, “and wireless setup was easy.” The RF PA receivers directly fed one speaker, with additional speakers manageably daisy-chained within the zone with modest cable runs.
“The problems faced in the venue in the past were solved with the RF PA Extension Kit,” said Schmitt. “The venue’s management had their safety and aesthetic concerns addressed and the client had time aligned audio where they needed it for excellent quality. Everyone was happy.”
