View Full Version : Restaurant Installation


rebn
02-17-08, 10:33 AM
Although our company mainly does residential installations, occasionally we take on the restaurant job. We believe that there is no reason that a commercial application shouldn't have decent fidelity! All that being said, I am looking for solutions to get more gain out of the system and similar dynamic range between all the sources.

The setup involves an input selector (sources are iPOD, CD player, cable box) and signal chain is:

Input selector->line level monomixer->compressor->graphic EQ-> AMP 1 -> AMP 2->Impedance matching VC (6 zones w/ability to pick AMP 1 or 2)

The AMPs are loaded equally, and with impedance matching, each one sees about a 4-ohm load. There are 20 speakers in the venu.

The sound level is much lower from the iPOD (as expected) so when CDs are played, it's blaring loud. I don't want to go overboard with compression and essentially use it as a limiter...is there another piece of "leveling" hardware? Any other feedback on the pros or cons of the setup would be appreciated!

-A-

Rupert
02-17-08, 01:06 PM
You could certainly use a small line-level mixer to set the levels:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=248-576



Another option would be to attenuate the louder source with RCA attenuators:

http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage.cfm?&Webpage_ID=3&CAT_ID=34&ObjectGroup_ID=725&SO=2