I’m sure everyone has been to some soft of event at a large venue where the sound echoed until you couldn’t understand every word. While maybe not as dramatic, every indoor space produces some sort of echo or reflection of sound. It is the job of your audio engineer to compensate for the room and produce the best possible sound to the audience.
In rooms less than 100’, standard speakers will do the job quite adequately, because the reflections are usually too short to be noticed. In fact, they can give the sound a fullness and warmth that can be quite pleasing for music. But as the space increases the echo increases.
The first thought is to add more speakers in the back of the room. Seems logical, but unless handled properly, they will make the problem far worse. Since the sound from the speakers in the front of the room will travel to the listener far slower than the electronic signal to the speakers in the rear of the room, you will hear the back speakers first, and the front speakers some time later. More echo.
By properly placing the speakers (and that will vary depending on the space), and using a device called a delay unit. The delay unit does exactly that, it delays the electronic signal to the rear speakers. In that way we can ensure that the sound from the front speakers reach the listener at the same time as the sound from the rear speakers. Good sound !
Remember, if they can’t hear your message, what was the use of the meeting?
