Sound

You can approach this as technically as you want or just raise your awareness of a few things you need for a successful wedding.

The Easy Stuff:

• Make sure the DJ can provide enough sound for the area.
• Make sure the sound set up doesn't detract from the event or irritate your guests.
• Make sure your DJ is aware of the physical layout of your venue.
• When renting a dance floor, get the right size.

Area:

The first thing to consider is whether your event is indoors or outdoors.

• Indoors will require less equipment.
• Outdoors will often require more equipment.

If you are thinking about having a friend DJ or if the DJ you are thinking about hiring is just starting out, ask to see their equipment. People who DJ "on the side" often use a "home" stereo system to DJ. Often these systems sound great at home but do not have enough power to handle a large venue.

Does the area have a little or a lot of ambient noise? If there's a waterfall, air conditioning unit or refrigeration unit or a road that runs close by the venue it may be necessary to have your DJ provide more sound equipment to compensate for this "competition." Most DJ's either know the venues and what the requirements are or will want to come and inspect the venue if they haven't played there before.

	At Left: This is one of my typical sound systems. It's designed to be used in both a large venue and a small venue. For small venues, this system can sit in a corner and take up as little as 4 ft by 4 ft square (not including the speakers.) By adding additional amplifiers and speakers I can use this same system as the "heart" of a large system to use in large venues.
This is an example of a "big" system. Playing in a larger room where I expected a group of nearly 1,000 people, this system quadruples the volume of the smaller system. Here you see it configured with just some of our lighting effects.

Set Up:

I always suggest putting the DJ as close to the dance floor as possible. When you can't put him right next to the dance floor, at least allow for the speakers to be close. In larger buildings the set-up staff will often place a sound table far from the dance floor. If the DJ sets up speakers close to his system there's usually tables between the DJ and the dance floor. Big Problem! The guests closest to the speakers will complain the volume is too high; the people on the dance floor will not be able to hear the music to dance to it.

The solution is to allow the DJ to set his speakers up close to the dance floor regardless of where he is located. For instance, with medium sized groups in large rooms I place speakers at the corners of the dance floor. In a large room with lots of guests I will place speakers close to the ends of the head table, often on stands, to project the sound out to the crowd.

Venue:

Different venues provide different levels of service. For instance, if your wedding is inside at a convention or conference center you're probably having your ceremony at another location, such as a church. In these cases, the DJ usually only supplies sound at the reception and only needs one sound system.

If your wedding is outdoors, you might have different requirements. Sometimes the ceremony will be in the same area and the DJ will only need to provide one sound system. However, your ceremony might be so far from the reception area that it poses problems with sound. For instance, wireless microphones have distance limitations, especially since the FCC recently allowed for crowding of air waves with wireless devices.

The other thing to consider is the fact that if speakers are set up at a right angle to the ceremony, the amplified voices from the microphone(s) will be coming from the guests side instead of from the front, the natural direction for the sound.

For these reasons and others, it's general best for your DJ to use two sound systems: one for the ceremony and one for the reception.

Below are some diagrams showing good set up versus what to avoid.

Notes on dance floor sizing: 30% of your guests will be on the dance floor at any given time. For 150 guests the recommended size of the floor is 15' X 15'. 200 guests calls for 18 X 18. This is just a general guideline. If you know you have a party crowd then you might opt for the larger dance floor. On the other hand, if you have a group that winds up being older, doesn't drink much, doesn't dance much, then you could opt for the smaller floor.

Outside sites with additional sound information

Watch a short video on the technical aspects of setting speakers.

This home-audio dissertation will give you some insights on audio positioning.