# Sound for Gymnasium



## jhudgins (Oct 20, 2014)

Our church is building a gymnasium. It is a catch-all building for just about anything and everything, and it will have a stage and a sound system. Have any of you had experience with sound systems in a gym type environment? Outside of having a boat load of sound deadening panels everywhere, what have you seen work and what are the challenges we face?

I know this is a broad question that could have several solutions, but I need to know what pitfalls are ahead of me.

Any help is greatly appreciated.


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## seanandkate (Oct 20, 2014)

Reverberation. Lots of it. Whenever I need sound reinforcement in our school gym, I use multiple speakers (as opposed to just from the front) so that I don't need to have the overall volume as high (lower volume out of each speaker = less sound bouncing around the room = less muddy sound).


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## MNicolai (Oct 20, 2014)

jhudgins said:


> Our church is building a gymnasium. It is a catch-all building for just about anything and everything, and it will have a stage and a sound system. Have any of you had experience with sound systems in a gym type environment? Outside of having a boat load of sound deadening panels everywhere, what have you seen work and what are the challenges we face?
> 
> I know this is a broad question that could have several solutions, but I need to know what pitfalls are ahead of me.
> 
> Any help is greatly appreciated.



The thirty-second summary of tricks to coming up with an effective, intelligible sound system in a space like that include, but are not limited to:

+ Appropriate acoustical treatments on the walls/ceilings
+ Having a loudspeaker configuration with enough pattern control to keep the sound energy limited to the seating/audience areas so as to not spray excess energy over the walls and floor space.
+ Designing loudspeaker configuration so as to minimize feedback potential on-stage despite potentially large amount of reverberation.

My advice is if you want someone to do this right, don't accept a quote for a sound system or acoustical treatments from anyone who cannot provide an EASE acoustical model to back up their claims of success. You will probably have to pay for this analysis. Alternatively, if you solicit a quote from someone, get them to give you a tour of a similar room they've done so you know what to expect for your money and that they can deliver on their promises.


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## FMEng (Oct 21, 2014)

I agree with Mike. Gyms can be among the most challenging environments for sound. An acoustical consultant should quantify the reverberation by taking measurements or with computer modeling, and then design a system to meet standards for intelligibility. Without doing that, you could wind up with a system that is plenty loud, but without speech being understandable.

In some cases, taming the room might be cheaper or easier than trying to fix it with the sound system. A good engineer will work that out.


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## AlexDonkle (Oct 22, 2014)

We work on a lot of gyms with stages (generally churches and smaller schools). The above is true, that in nearly all cases acoustical panels are the only way to make the room usable with a sound system. If the project is still under design or at least still under construction it'll be cheaper than fixing it later. I'm a biased source obviously, but I've seen many gyms built without acoustical treatment and then we get called later to fix it, always more expensive and rarely looks as good.

Here's the NCAC (National Council of Acoustical Consultants) listed consultants where you're located.
http://www.ncac.com/directory.php?mode=search&state=FL

Cheapest solution on most projects is Tectum wall panels, and 2" thick MBI lapendary banners hung from the ceiling. An acoustical consultant can provide other recommendations, calculated minimum square footage required of each material, and then the architect will typically include it into their drawings / specs. No question this is always cheaper than trying to fix issues post-construction.


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## Jazzy Joel (May 24, 2015)

(2) Bose 402-II matched with (1) MB4 mount it FOH High Center then, look into setting rig points along (4) walls so you can rig curtains based on event type ... Gym will suck you dry budget wise when it comes to acoustical disaster mitigation! Typically we run a middle school gym + Stage combo [280' wide by 90' deep 45' tall ]... we bring in (2) Bose 402-II with (1) MB4 (2) + (2) QSC K12... we rig the 402 foh of stage Center-high ... qsc rear far corners ... delay the qsc to match the slap of the 402s and we pipe and drape the crapper out of the three walls ... works great for plays, speaking, assembly's etc ... (remove the qsc and pipe and drape for Sporting events) when we do the special event dance(s) we fly the bose system FOH above center stage-high and fly our KV2 audio (2) es1.0 (FOH high but extreme right and left High) + (2) es1.8 (FOH high but extreme right and left low) + (2) Cerwin vega Ts42 21" subs (FOH stage Center stage low) + (2) QSC k12 (10' stick BOH extreme left and right corner) we estimate to have 1000 kids)....


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