Optimization of a FOH Sound

Reinforcement System
Stephen Bunting

When installing a front-of-house sound reinforcement system,

there are many factors to be bore in mind to gain optimum
technical performance. This paper goes some way to
outlining important technical requirements of a large scale
concert and describes several techniques commonly used for
optimisation including positioning, time alignment and
equalisation, focusing specifically on front-of-house sound,
as opposed to that for monitor mixing.
1 Introduction

The front-of-house (FOH) sound system for a large scale concert is complex, and
requires a large amount of time pre-planning, rigging and setting-up before the show
begins.

The weakest link in the audio chain is often the interface between acoustic sound
and electric signal, as most modern audio equipment, even at a semi-pro level, can
offer a sufficiently wide frequency range with plenty of dynamic range and low
distortion levels. There is generally very little to go wrong with microphones in the
hands of a professional, with the exception of physical abuse or failure. At the other
end of the chain, the loudspeakers have the greatest potential to go wrong, as multiple
drivers are required to work together at high levels for long periods of time, and are
easily subject to bad setup, especially in an active system without careful thought.

The majority of this paper will deal with issues with loudspeakers and their
output.

2 System Overview

For a large venue, an actively crossed-over loudspeaker system will be required,

with a number of almost full range cabinets (otherwise known as top boxes) and sub-
bass cabinets, driven by multiple amplifiers. At FOH mix position, a mixing console
will be required, as well as a loudspeaker drive rack and an effects rack. There must
also be a multicore cable and stage box to connect the stage equipment to the remote
FOH position. See Figure 1 for a rough plan of this equipment in a band environment.

2.1 The Active Loudspeaker System

‘In spite of the fact that they can increase the total cost of a smaller system, active
crossovers are widely used in professional sound because they offer significant
advantages in system performance.” [Davis et al., 1989]

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 Actively crossed-over systems have the disadvantage of being considerably more
complex, but by crossing the signal over for different drivers at line-level (rather than
speaker level), they provide a much greater level of control, both to the designer and
the operator. Most modern active crossovers use 24dB/octave Linkwitz-Riley filters,
which are steeper and more accurate than can be achieved with passive crossovers,
providing better phase coherency at the crossover frequency.

Figure 1 - A rough stage plan, showing stage positioning and multicore to a remote FOH mix
position.

Active systems require amplification of each driver separately, which means the
total number of amplifiers increases compared to a passive system. One full range
stack of a tri-amplified system (requiring 3 channels of amplification for a full-range
system) can be seen in Figure 2.

Multiple amplification increases available headroom. As full range music

programme generally contains more energy at lower frequencies, it is possible for
these to cause distortion of the low energy higher frequencies. By crossing the signal

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Stephen Bunting
over before it’s amplified, a single frequency in a certain band has comparable energy
to the rest of the band, so that with careful gain structure, adequate headroom is
provided for each frequency range. Additionally, each amplifier has direct control of
the drivers it is driving, which will increase damping and tighten up bass response.

Figure 2 - A tri-amplified active loudspeaker system, comprising of a top box with a HF driver
and a bass/mid driver and a seperate subwoofer

The biggest decision to make at this stage is the loudspeaker format, whether to
use a traditional horizontal cluster or a line array. Line arrays have the benefit of
being a long throw and highly directional system but are expensive and require
hanging points. For concerts where the capabilities of a long throw system are not
necessary, horizontal clusters can produce exceptional results with lower expense.

2.2 Control

The mixing console should have enough channels for the number of sources, with
provision for returns from effects processors, CD players or DJs, a local microphone
for announcements and redundancy in case of equipment failure or unexpected

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circumstances. It is also good practice to buy/hire a second PSU as the console is the
hub of the system, and the show would not happen without it.

A FOH effects rack will contain a number of effects units and signal processors to
the engineers taste, depending on the event.

The multicore should have enough channels for the number of sources on stage,
including some redundancy. It should also have a separate line level returns multicore
to the onstage amp racks, in order to reduce crosstalk induction into mic level lines,
and a power cable strapped on.

2.3 Drive rack

A FOH drive rack is used to drive the amplifiers. It could contain some or all of
the components discussed below. Note that some of these may be combined into one
unit.

A speaker management unit with crossover is essential to an active loudspeaker

system. It will provide a two channel input, and 2/3/4 outputs per channel, split into
separate frequency bands, which will directly feed the amplifiers. These are chosen
after consideration of the drivers installed in the loudspeakers and their frequency
range, although a system specific controller may be used, which is factory preset for
optimum results. This unit may also provide functionality such as limiting (for
protection) and phase/delay functions for time-alignment and equalisation.

This may be placed in the amplifier racks on stage, requiring only a stereo feed
from the drive rack. While this method requires only 2 channels of multicore instead
of up to 8, it decreases the amount of control and visual feedback the FOH engineer
has during the show.

A graphic equaliser is necessary to even out frequency problems with a particular

system and the environment it is placed in. A limiter might be included to protect the
amplifiers and speakers from overload and serious damage, while there may be a
compressor included for more creative dynamic control purposes. There may be a
delay unit included to drive delay-line stacks or time alignment. Some kind of

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Stephen Bunting
playback unit should be included for pre-show music, and more importantly, setting
up the system. A talkback station may also be included for audio communications
with the monitor engineer, a sound technician on stage with access to the amplifiers,
the lighting designer, the stage manager and the production manager.

3 Setup

3.1 Speaker cabinet clustering and positioning

A horizontal cluster’s dispersion can easily be widened by adding more cabinets

on an arc with their -6dB points (at about 2-4 kHz) just overlapping. Most modern,
reasonably powered cabinets are trapezoid shaped, so this arc clustering is simply a
matter of butting them together. Care should be taken to point all cabinets away from
the side walls if possible, in order to increase the direct-to-reverberant ratio the
audience hears.

Even coverage of the entire audience is a main aim of sound reinforcement, which
makes overhead flying of clusters desirable when possible. By increasing the
downward angle, the path length difference at various listening positions decreases. In
trying to cover a large room, the flown clusters should point about 2 thirds of the way
down the hall, in order to cover the entire venue and prevent reflections off the back
wall as much as possible. In doing this, the people at the front may not hear enough
direct sound and an unsatisfactorily large amount of reverberated sound. Therefore
down-fills and in-fills should be used, as short range speakers only intended for the
audience at the front. These may be attached to the underside of the main clusters and
pointed downwards, or stacked on the sides of stage, depending on the coverage
required.

While the traditional way to arrange speakers for bands is to have a stack either
side of stage, with a vague notion of stereo, in the case of speech, it is beneficial to
use a single central cluster. This prevents the effect where someone standing too close
to one stack at the front hears the same thing three times: once from the close stack,
once from the actual speaker and once from the far stack.

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 For large concerts requiring long throw line arrays, the positioning must be more
meticulously planned, and most manufacturers provide computer software to aid in
this, not leaving much room for personal preference.

3.2 Mix position

The placement of FOH equipment, known as ‘mix position’ is of great importance

to the quality of the show sound, as getting an ideal position will give the engineer a
good idea of what the audience are hearing all over the auditorium, rather than in the
one location where he’s been placed. However, this is often tricky to achieve as many
other factors are working against this, such as venue layout and promoters not
wanting seating to be taken up by bulky equipment. A compromise has to be made,
and this will be different for every venue and show.

The ideal position for highest quality monitoring is ‘that location at which the
sound is most representative of the sound heard by the greatest number of people in
the audience’ [Davis et al, 1989]. To place it halfway between the two FOH PA
stacks seems sensible, but in reality this will cause phase and comb-filtering
problems. Therefore it is best to place it slightly off centre.

A general rule for a good distance from stage is to place mix position somewhere
between the distance between the two FOH PA stacks and twice this distance (see
Figure 3). For example, if the stage was 30m wide with a PA stack at either extremity,
mix position should be between 30m and 60m back. If it is too close, it will be very
loud for the operator so they will tend to turn it down, leaving the people at the back
struggling to hear. Also, there is generally more demand for audience at the front so it
will use up too much space. If mix position is too far back, in a large venue, there will
be a significant audio delay which could cause the operator to miss cues.

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Figure 3 - Mix position should be placed between 1 and 2 times the stage width from the front of
stage.

4.3 Time Alignment

The main aim of a sound reinforcement system is to distribute intelligible audio to

a large number of people, often in large spaces with dimensions where the speed of
sound becomes significant. Time coherency is required to maintain intelligibility and
reduce comb filtering, and there are a number of places where this can break down.

In a loudspeaker system with two or more different driver types, there can be
significant problems with phase differences between drivers, specifically at crossover
frequencies, due to driver displacement. In a loudspeaker with the acoustical centres
of two drivers mounted exactly one above the other, there is a vertical radiation
pattern which forms lobes and cancellation axes at the crossover frequency due to
different wave path lengths (Figure 4), and is an unavoidable problem caused by them
not being exactly co-incidental. However, a common design of loudspeakers is to
horn-load the HF driver, which means it must be mounted further back, causing the
radiation pattern to tilt upwards. This is much more objectionable, creating an
unpredictable sound field that will sound good at few listening positions.

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Figure 4 - A loudspeaker with time-aligned wavefront

The first and most obvious solution is to design a two or three way cabinet with all
drivers vertically aligned so as to design out this problem. However, this is often not
possible due to physical constraints. If this is the case, then electronic delay can be
applied to the most forward drivers, creating a full-range in-phase wave-front. The
amount of delay required will be a function of crossover frequency and driver
displacement.

A good method for setting a delay between a mid and top driver is to setup a
calibrated measurement microphone connected to a real-time analyser (RTA)
vertically halfway between the drivers, and set each driver individually to read a
nominal 0dB at the crossover frequency with a pink noise source at reasonable level.
If the two drivers are phase aligned, measuring this point when both drivers are active
will show a 3dB increase at the crossover point, due to phase-coherency between the
two drivers. Anything less than this means that they are not aligned properly. By
slowly increasing the delay on the mid driver, the crossover point level should
increase up to a +3dB peak, before falling again. This should then be repeated
between bass and mid drivers (if applicable), although it is unnecessary at frequencies
less than about 150Hz, as the drivers will become more omni directional at low
frequencies.

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 By taking time to time-align individual drivers, a very noticeable improvement
can be made to a sound reinforcement system, with a more even frequency response
and distribution pattern.

A more obvious use of delay in sound reinforcement systems is with distributed

speaker systems. For projecting stage sound over large distances, it is common
practice to use delay stacks in addition to the main stage PA, which are delayed
relative to the stage stacks.

Figure 5 - The use of delay speaker stacks for large area coverage

In Figure 5, a pair of delay stacks is located 50m in front of the stage. With no
delay compensation, any people standing further back than these would hear the delay
stacks first, and then the acoustically delayed main PA. This would cause smearing
and would be identifiable as separate sources if the delay were between 30ms and
60ms, and anything greater than this would be perceived as a distinct echo. Therefore,
delay is required. It is simple to calculate. If we consider the speed of sound to be
344ms-1, the delay required is:

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 50 ÷ 344 = 145ms

Another technique often utilised with acoustic amplification where there are visual
cues, such as bands or speech, is to delay the main PA FOH stacks to the natural
sound coming off stage. With a band, it is usually aligned to the drums, as these are
often loud enough to be heard above the PA, especially the snare drum, and can be
calculated simply by measuring the distance from the FOH PA stacks to the drum kit.
This helps in making it sound like it’s the band playing rather than the PA, and is
especially useful in smaller venues with deep stages at up to reasonably loud sound
pressure levels.

4.4 Equalisation

After a sound system has been pointed for ideal coverage, crossed-over and time
aligned, it is still unlikely for it to exhibit a flat frequency response, due to
inadequacies in the equipment (most significantly the speakers), but also due to room
modes causing ringing and even feedback. In order to correct this, equalisation is
required. While equalisation always degrades the signal integrity, it is a necessary evil
in most rooms, with the exception of an extremely well designed room specifically for
the purpose of sound reproduction.

Room mode problems are very narrow frequency wise, so fine control is needed
over the frequency response. Therefore, it’s preferable to use a 1/3 octave graphic
equaliser, providing 31 frequency bands of equalisation. These have been found to be
a good compromise between the impracticalities of 1/6 or 1/12 octave graphics which
are expensive and slow to setup and less accurate ½ and 2/3 octave ‘broadband’
graphic equalisers. The unit should be of Constant-Q design, which provides more
accurate filters and will give a better graphic depiction of the actual EQ that’s being
performed, although they produce a jagged frequency response at higher boost/cut
levels, so moderation must be exercised.

Graphic equalisers are used, as opposed to parametric, as they give a quick visual
representation of what the unit is doing, and they provide many more frequency bands
which are required for fine tuning.

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 There are two methods commonly used for setting up a FOH equaliser. ‘Ringing
out’ a system is used when feedback is of primary concern, which comprises cutting
the most resonant frequencies that are likely to feedback. However this method is
more useful for monitors in close proximity to microphones or small FOH sound
systems in small rooms.

The other method is to measure the response of the system with a spectrum
analyser from a typical listening position in the near field, and to even out any
inconsistencies with the graphic equaliser. By cutting any frequencies that are too
prominent and boosting any that are lacking, an even response can be achieved,
although boost should be used sparingly to conserve headroom. The response should
then be re-measured at different locations in the near field to ensure an even response
over the entire venue. If there are considerable differences, or large amounts of EQ
are needed, then steps should be taken to even it out, such as re-pointing the speaker
stacks. This technique should be used individually for all the different clusters and
speaker locations in the room (i.e. FOH stacks, centre cluster, delay stacks, in-fills)
before adding them all in and taking overall measurements.

The reason the measurements should be performed in the near field is so that
reverb doesn’t influence it too much, and so that air absorption isn’t considerable,
which would result in an unnaturally high HF increase after equalisation. It should
however be checked in the far field for any major problems.

These measurements and adjustments should be performed using noise sources

and test tones for accurate measurement, although it’s important to listen to the
response of the system with program material to make a subjective decision on the
sound quality of the system. Many engineers use the EQ to make creative changes. In
situations where there is an active speaker management unit with equalisation and
separate graphic EQ, they may use the speaker management unit for technical
equalisation and the graphic EQ for creative changes, so they can quickly zero it and
return to a flat system frequency response. This technique is useful in installations
where many different engineers use the system.

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5 Conclusion

This paper gave a number of ways of maximising the audio reproduction quality
in a large concert, including technical considerations such as setup positioning for
both mix position and speakers and practical techniques for implementing time
alignment and equalisation. By spending a bit of time planning and setting up, a
reasonable system can be made to sound excellent.

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6 Bibliography/References
ƒ Bohn, Dennis, A, 1986: ‘Constant-Q Graphic Equalizers’, Journal of the
Audio Engineering Society, Vol. 34, No. 9, pp. 611-626.

ƒ Davis, Gary and Jones, Ralph, 1989: The Sound Reinforcement Handbook,
second edition (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corporation).

ƒ Klepper, David L., 1967: ‘Time-Delay Units for Sound Reinforcement

Systems’, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp.
176-179.

ƒ Mapp, Peter, 1994: ‘Sound reinforcement and public address’, in Borwick,

John, ed., Loudspeaker and Headphone Handbook (London: Focal Press),
pp. 337-386.

ƒ Zielinski, Slawek, 2003: Tonmeister Level HE2 Electroacoustics Lecture

Notes.

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