SOUND SYSTEM SETUP

A very important question to consider when designing an audio system is, what is the purpose of the system? Will it reinforce sound or reproduce sound? Is the content live voice or program audio? How do you want the content to sound to the audience?

Voice reinforcement system include paging systems as well as five event support, such as panel discusions or presentations. Intelligibility is the most important factor in voice reinforcement systems: Therefore a single channel of audio is typically used. One channel playback is called monophonic, meaning "one sound". This result in each speaker playing identical sound. This is fine for a supermarket paging system, but for music and other performance sounds stereo is better.

Stereophonic playback has two channels. To the audience, sound from the left and right are distinctly separated, and sounds from the original source seem much more realistic. For example. if the drums were playing from the left side of the stage, their sound would come from the left speaker to an individual sitting in the audience.

Multi-channel or surround sound has a more complex stereo playback system. Surround sound can have five channels, and produces increasingly realistic sound. In movie theater, surround sound may be used to make the sound seem to the audience as if it were coming from a specific direction (right, center, rear, etc).