Small Systems
The simplest PA systems consist of a microphone, an amplifier, and one or more loudspeakers. Simple and small PA systems of this type, often providing 50 to 200 watts of power, are often used in small venues such as school auditoriums, churches, and small bars. A sound source such as a Compact Disc player or radio may be connected to a PA system so that music can be played through the system.
Public address systems consist of input sources, amplifiers, control and monitoring equipment, and loudspeakers. The primary input sources are microphones for live announcements and a source of recorded sound. There may be a system which allows operators, or automated equipment, to select from a number of standard prerecorded messages. These input sources are fed into preamplifiers and signal routers that determine the zones to which the audio signal is fed. The preamplified signals are then passed into the amplifiers. Depending on local practices these amplifiers will usually amplify the audio signals to 50V, 70V or 100V speaker line level. Control equipment monitors the amplifiers and speaker lines for faults before it reaches the loudspeakers. This control equipment is also used for separating zones in a PA system. The loudspeaker is used to convert electrical signals into sound.
Read more about this topic: Public Address
Famous quotes containing the words small and/or systems:
“Panurge was of medium stature, neither too large, nor too small ... and subject by nature to a malady known at the time as “Money-deficiency,”Ma singular hardship; nevertheless, he had sixty-three ways of finding some for his needs, the most honorable and common of which was by a form of larceny practiced furtively.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air- conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them. The mindless luxury of a rich civilization, and yet of a civilization perhaps as scared to see the lights go out as was the hunter in his primitive night.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)