This is getting into an area I've been trying to figure out. We've got a small space with a
thrust (the
stage is roughly 20' x 20', the entire space about 60' x 40' x 20', but a lot of that is taken up by audience seating and minimal backstage areas) and I've been wanting to put multiple speakers in so that sounds could be delivered from specific locations. Our
deck is 8" off the room floor and can easily hold bookshelf or other small speakers facing out or up, and we have an overhead
grid that can hold the same easily.
I'd like to get about 6 speakers around the edges of the
stage, another 2 up behind the central audience (we now have a
speaker behind each of the side audience sections), and 2 by the upstage wall. Ideally, I'd like to be able to
play different cues in different locations (crickets near the left
vom and a distant dog barking by the right audience, for example), and be able to have a
cue move from
speaker to
speaker (for example, having a horse drawn carriage circle the
stage in sound.) I know I can run cues at the same time through
QLab and I think I remember being able to
switch a sound
cue from output to output in
QLab. What I'm not sure of is how to set up the speakers and
amplifier/s for this.
The sound doesn't need to be hugely amplified -- that's the beauty of our space. I've been picking up thrown-out speakers to
play with -- stuff that's still good but is getting left behind as people move -- and I don't think that I need to worry about excellent
speaker quality. The space for putting the
stage speakers is so small that I don't see how I can get decent woofers for the individual speakers. Maybe, given how
bass works, one
woofer in the center of the
stage would work for all 6 speakers? I'm assuming the
stage itself is going to operate like the
speaker cabinet.
I don't know anything about the number or
power or type of amplification I'm going to need, though. Any thoughts on that, and on any of this, would be really appreciated.
Thanks!