The Microphone Book, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 18

FUNDAMENTALS OF SPEECH AND MUSIC REINFORCEMENT

INTRODUCTION

It is rare to find any public venue today in which speech is not routinely reinforced. Today’s auditoriums, worship spaces, classrooms, and arenas tend to be larger than in the past, and patrons have come to expect the comfort and ease of listening with minimum effort. In this chapter we will present an overview of sound reinforcement system design, with emphasis on those factors that determine the intelligibility of reinforced speech.

Music reinforcement spans the gamut from small-scale club systems to high-level reinforcement of rock and pop artists in major venues, both indoors and out. For some years, the emphasis in professional music reinforcement has been on basic ...