Video: What is a commercial audio system?

Setting up your commercial audio system is different than setting up a home theater system. In a home theater system, speaker wire connects from each speaker back to a receiver. In a commercial audio system, we'll create a chain that connects an amplifier to a speaker, to another speaker, and so on. This simplifies setup and makes it easy to expand your system down the road.

Let's take a look at how the signal travels from the source to your speakers. Your source could be a music player, sound from a TV, or a paging microphone. The signal runs to your amplifier which powers the speaker chain. You'll connect the speaker wire from the output of your amplifier to the input on a volume control, then take the speaker wire from the output of the volume control and connect it to the input of the first speaker. Like the volume control, each speaker has inputs and outputs for connecting to the next speaker. Continue down the line from the output of that speaker to the input of the next one. You can keep connecting speakers this way.

A good commercial audio system simplifies your connections, saves a ton of wire over traditional audio setup, and is designed to run all day, every day. Each speaker has a tap on the back, a little switch that lets you dial in the wattage it will use. Add up the wattage of all the tapped speakers in the chain, and that will give you the total power needed for your system. You'll want that number to be less than the rated power of the amplifier you select. We recommend choosing an amplifier with enough leftover power to give you some room to expand your system in the future. Contact our commercial audio experts to learn how we can help design your system.