Need a sound system to play background music or make announcements in a restaurant, school, warehouse, or other institutional building? A high-voltage system often presents the most economical, practical, and safest solution.
Keep your music licensed and legal
Under the Copyright Act of 1976, composers and musicians are entitled to collect royalties for each public performance of their work. When you play music for paying customers, you need a public license.
Benefits of a 70-volt system
Because the voltage is high, the current running through a 70-volt system is low. You can use thinner, less expensive speaker wires. The amplifiers in these systems don’t have “load impedance” issues. It doesn’t matter how many speakers you connect.
Speakers with adjustable power levels
The speakers in a 70-volt system are like houses connected to an electric power transmission line. Each speaker incorporates a transformer that steps down the high voltage to a level that the speaker can handle. The transformer has multiple taps to achieve different wattage levels for the speaker. The higher the wattage tap, the louder the speaker will play.
Acoustic treaments
We’ve covered the first two things you need for great sound: the right gear and good speaker placement. But there’s a third ingredient that’s often overlooked: acoustic treatments.
In most buildings, the first two ingredients aren’t enough. Even the best equipment may not sound too good in a room that has a lot of hard surfaces. Acoustic panels kill the echoes and reverberations that produce an uncomfortable level of noise.
PA systems
While 70-volt systems are perfect for background music and brief announcements, they aren’t the right choice for church services, live music, speeches, school plays, or any other kind of staged event. For that you need a separate PA system. Your system designer can help you
