I own a stage decking company in Central Florida with a 4,500sqft warehouse, but don't handle any significant sound. I'm trying to figure out where the best place/book is to start learning outdoor concert sound engineering for bands/DJs and what gear to buy? I have basic knowledge of sound as a DJ for the past 15 years, but that's not much experience when your speakers are self powered. I'm looking to buy a mobile trailer stage 16x24 (marshal austin) or 20x22 (StageMobil L) with a roof system that I can hang speaker arrays from and would like to know what it would take to provide sound for 1,000 to 2,000+ people at a time. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Merge with an audio company or hire a seasoned engineer and pay him well. Filling audio riders with that size as act is not something a book will teach you. Its also not going to be cheap. 300k is a starting point for a Foh pa, monitor rig, interconnect, and mic inventory.
I agree that your best option may be to subcontract or work with an established sound provider or to perhaps try to hire some experienced staff from such firms. You might also want to look at what any existing providers offer and what they provide in terms of both your being able to be competitive and the potential of cross rental to and from those companies for larger events.
I'll also add to work on perhaps identifying a core clientele and application and putting together a business plan. Trying to be everything to everybody is rarely cost effective and often a poor business plan if there are competitors who can address specific clients and/or events more effectively. For example, an outdoor EDM event with 2,000+ people is probably going to require low frequency reproduction that would be difficult to justify for many other events, so will you encounter those situations or potential cross-rentals enough to justify that investment or might it make more sense to invest in a system that could be supplemented if required for such events or might it be a better business decision to leave such events to others and focus on different markets? There is a significant business aspect that may have to be considered in association with or even before addressing the related technical aspects.
Since you are in Central FL, You may want to look into taking some classes at FullSail It will give you the fundamentals.... Then, hire someone with prior experience to get your new sound dept up and running.... Far cheaper than learning from your own mistakes.
Hey, Scott. I have a sound/lighting company in NJ and do quite a bit of work on mobile stages such as the StageLine SL100. I'm getting a bit tired of the cold winters here and could use a change in scenery. Send me a PM if you want to seriously talk.
