How far apart can I place my speakers?

[Dix]

We have a wedding reception tomorrow night (7/14) & it will be in an OLD school building that was probably built in the 20's or 30's. They use the auditorium for wedding receptions etc now. I will be up on the stage. The stage of course is probably 40 foot wide..??
I want to set up right in the middle of the stage & place my speakers, one on each side at the stairs. Therefore, my speakers will be about 15 - 20 foot away from me... one on each side. (To be honest, I am doing this to block the stairs so people wont be coming up on stage around my equipment. I am putting a request sheet on the floor of the stage, right on the edge so people can come up to the front edge of the stage & write down requests.)

Is this too far apart? Does it really matter? I have never considered doing this & I don't recall seeing any of your pics on here set up like that.

However, just like a concert stage, the bands usually set their speakers on either side while they perform in the center. Same thing or not??

Thanks
TC

[windspeed36]

How many people are expected for the event and what speakers/subs are you planning on using? My feeling is you may have a dead valley in the center of the room and coverage strips along the edge.

[Synaxis]

How will people be seated? If the dance floor is in the middle, and tables and chairs to the sides, I wouldn't place my speakers so far apart.

Reason being, is that I would prefer to concentrate the music on the dance floor, allowing lower levels on the sides so that the people not dancing can have a conversation without screaming over the music.

The difference concert wise, is that the whole area is a dance floor, as opposed to a wedding with people sitting down, eating, ect...

I like the idea of blocking the stairs with equipment, but trust me when I say this, if your drunk enough, you'll find a way through no matter what is in your way...
Can you block the stairs any other way?

[SockoPro]

Live performances use center fills in the dead areas between the arrays that sit right at or below stage level. You normally don't see them unless your looking for them.

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

[Dix]

I am using a couple of Peavey SP4's. There will be about 125 - 150 people there. I am not sure how this reception will be set up as far as seating is concerned but I am fairly sure it will be similar. When I too these to pics (with my cell phone) I was standing right at the base of the stage on the main floor, on the right corner of the stage. I am guessing that the stage is 30 - 40 ft wide. Its basically the same wide as the room... maybe 5 - 10 ft shorter.

Here are a couple of pics of the place from a previous reception we did there.

Left side of the room looking from the stage

IMG_0163.jpg


Right side of the room looking from the stage

IMG_0164.jpg

[DigitalArtDJs]

I have a similar (but smaller) venue I am DJ'ing at in a couple of weeks:



What I do for bigger events and most of my weddings to get a good idea of equipment placement and speaker layout is quickly graph the venue and my equipment layout in Visio. If you look at the attached you will notice I draw a perpendicular line out of my speakers that is tied to their spec'd coverage pattern (90 degrees in my case). This gives me an idea of if/where I will have dead areas. In my case and in yours you have a couple of options. You can turn the speakers in (slightly) to compensate if they need to be spread out wide as you are suggesting, or you may be able to move your speakers back a few additional feet which will incrementally increase the coverage pattern at the target area (i.e. the dance floor). In my case, since there are stairs that can't be moved in the center of the stage, I assume people won't be dancing there and therefore am ok if there is a bit of dead space there, but I might turn my speakers in just a degree or two to compensate.

If you have time, I would suggest trying to do something similar to see how your coverage pattern will cover your dance floor and space at your venue. If you don't have Visio you can download a free trial of it or use another similar program.

[carblekin]

I've had a few wedding receptions with stages. As long as the dance floor is right up against the stage, I usually place the stands and speakers on the main floor along the edges of the dance floor.