Guide To Doing Home-Theater Sound System

[Vizitator vivitern]

There are many things to consider when a decision has been made to improve, replace, and/or install new home-theater systems. Audio home-theater systems are, like any complex system, made up of many parts. The weakest link in the system would negatively affect the whole. However, replacing inferior or obsolete components of an existing system can bring it back to life.

So, what are some of the things to consider in this process? This guide will attempt to provide an understanding of what home-theater sound systems are comprised of, the different environments they will be used in, and the level of skill required of those operating the system.

The Room

Before you set up any audio system, you need to consider the environment it will be in. Does the room have hard surfaces that can reflect the sound? (i.e. sheetrock walls, glass windows, tiled floors, wooden pews, vaulted hardwood ceilings or a metal roof with beams and columns) Perhaps it’s filled with stuff that absorbs sound like heavy drapes, carpeting, and padded chairs. It’s not that one environment is better than another, but it depends on the style of worship your home-theater practices as to what type of room most suitable.

The Cables

Oftentimes, sound system quality can be improved just by replacing your old worn out cables with better ones. Does it make sense to purchase a new digital mixer, high-quality microphones, and loudspeakers and then connect them together with the cheapest cables? Evaluate your interconnections. Make sure you’re using the right type of cable, adapter, jack, etc. Many cables look alike but are very different. Keep the distances from the source to the destination as short as possible, especially if they are unbalanced lines. This is especially important with instrument and speaker cables. If the distance from an acoustic guitar or a keyboard to the mixing console is more than 20 feet away, please use a Direct Box to convert the high or low impedance instrument input to a balanced low impedance output so that the signal integrity will not be diminished.

Instrument cables have ¼” jacks and can look just like a speaker cable with ¼” jack. However, they look very different on the inside. Without getting into the theory, suffice it to say that if you use an instrument cable as a speaker cable, you could potentially fry your amplifier and or harm your loudspeaker. If your speakers are passive (not self-powered) and are far away from the amplifiers, try to get the amplifiers closer to the speakers to enable a shorter run. If that’s not possible, replace with heavier gauge speaker cables to elevate signal integrity and lessen the strain on the amplifiers. We’ll talk more about passive and powered loudspeakers and what the different connections that are required in that section.

The Snake

The snake makes it easier to connect instruments and microphones from the platform to the mixer. They come in a variety of lengths and channel counts. Simply, a snake is made up of multiple input/output jacks housed in a box that is labeled on the platform end, with individual cables wrapped in a jacket, extending as many feet as you need, to get to the mixer. (50”, 100’, 200’ etc) and then fans out to individual connections for the mixer’s inputs. The outputs of the mixer typically connect to the snake as well and travel back towards the platform where the outputs of the stage box would connect to the amplifiers that power your loudspeakers and monitors.

Microphones

The most expensive microphone isn’t always the best choice. Choosing the right type and pattern of a microphone will give the best result. The right microphone in the wrong place can wreak havoc on your audience and vice versa (feedback). Different types (moving-coil /dynamic, condenser, ribbon) and polar patterns (Omni, Directional, and Bi-directional) are suited for different scenarios and you need to do some homework to determine what type would be the best for the job. If the one you’ve chosen doesn’t work, try something else. If you get the right microphone in the right place it can save you a lot of time than trying to fix it in the mix. Take your time to move the microphone closer or a little farther away, on-axis or off. Distance and the angle will have a huge impact on the sound.

I really prefer to Knowles MEMS Microphone (consists of microphone components:http://www.kynix.com/Parts/3439/SPV1840LR5H-B.html)

Wireless

Traditional, analog wireless microphones and monitors operate in the TV Bands. (UHF/VHF/DTV)
The Federal Communications Commission regulates the TV Bands and the entire radio spectrum.
Suffice it to say that there used to be a lot more room to operate our wireless stuff but the FCC has been selling off spectrum like hot real estate.

This has caused manufacturers to research and develop innovative ways to combat the restrictions on current wireless technology and help customers who still require it. If you’re going to purchase wireless systems you need to do some homework and really consider why you need wireless and what will work now and in the future. If the reasons are compelling enough, go for it, but be smart and stay away from technologies that are going to be affected by the rising tide of regulations sweeping away the spectrum.

Digital wireless systems typically operate in the 2.4GHz band, (same as your W-Fi router) outside of the TV bands. Adding digital systems to existing analog wireless systems usually requires no frequency coordination with TV bands or existing analog wireless. In other words, if you need to add wireless systems to your set-up, these are the easiest to employ.

A digital wireless system that I really like and would seriously consider is the Audio-Technica System 10.

And there is also another parts such as Monitors, Loudspeakers,Dynamics Processors, Equalizers and Recording.