How big a sound system do you need for 50, 100, 200 or 500 people
The first question when renting speakers is always the same: how many people are coming and what will they be listening to. Getting it wrong costs in both directions. Too small and the back rows cannot follow the speech while the dance floor stays empty; too big and you carry and pay for boxes you never needed. Below are the rules of thumb we use on every order, with the kit that matches each size.
Three things that decide the speaker choice
Headcount is only one variable. Just as important is whether the event is indoors or outdoors, and what the system will actually reproduce. Speech needs clarity and even coverage, not power. Background music wants a little more low end. Dance music and a live band need a subwoofer and headroom, so the system is not running at its limit all night.
Outdoors, sound disappears fast because there are no walls or ceiling to bounce it back. For the same crowd you go one size up compared with a hall. Room shape matters too: a long, narrow room is harder to cover with two speakers than a wide, shallow one.
- Speech and presentations: two tops on stands, no subwoofer.
- Background music and dancing until midnight: add at least one subwoofer.
- Live band or DJ: two subwoofers and tops with power to spare.
- Outdoors: take the next size up.
Up to 50 people: speeches, meetings, small parties
For fifty people in a room, two compact active speakers on stands cover speech comfortably. Our Speech kit for up to 50 people uses two JBL EON710 speakers, a small mixer and two wireless handheld microphones. A ten-inch speaker will also play quiet background music, but do not expect a dance night from it.
Where there is no mains power, on a hike or in a garden, the Battery-powered outdoor speech kit with JBL EON COMPACT ONE speakers does the job. It is built for speech and background music, not for a party.
100 to 150 people: party, wedding, seminar
This is where the paths split. A seminar or presentation for 150 people is well served by two 12-inch active speakers such as the JBL PRX812, because what counts is intelligible speech and even coverage. That is exactly how the Presentation and seminar kit for up to 150 people is put together.
A party for the same crowd needs a subwoofer, no exceptions. Two 15-inch JBL PRX815 tops and one JBL SRX818SP subwoofer, as in the Party kit for up to 100 people, give enough bass for dancing without asking the tops to carry the low end. The Wedding sound kit follows the same logic and adds a headset microphone for the officiant.
200 to 300 people: bigger party, conference, band
Two hundred people call for tops with headroom and two subwoofers. Our Party kit for up to 200 people puts two JBL SRX812P speakers on two SRX818SP subwoofers, joined by distance poles. That lifts the tops high enough for the sound to travel over heads to the back rows.
At a conference for 300 people the same SRX812P tops without subwoofers are entirely sufficient, since the content is speech. For a live band the larger dual 18-inch JBL SRX828SP subwoofers and stage monitors come in, as in the Band kit for up to 200 people. Outdoors for 300 people we recommend the same larger subwoofer, because bass is what an open field swallows first.
500 people: line array
From roughly 400 to 500 people, two speakers on stands no longer give an even result: the front rows are too loud and the back cannot hear. This is where a line array comes in, with several elements stacked or flown and aimed at different distances. Our Concert kit for up to 500 people (line array) uses JBL VTX A8 elements, three per side, ground-stacked on base plates, with VTX B28 subwoofers and Crown I-Tech amplifiers.
A line array is a passive system: the amplifiers, cabling and tuning come with it and our technician sets it up. An event of this size should not be planned without a sound engineer on site.
When you need a subwoofer and when you do not
For speech, presentations and quiet background music, skip the subwoofer. It adds carrying, and in a room the bass can even get in the way of speech. As soon as dancing, a DJ or a band is on the programme, the subwoofer becomes necessary: tops without one run at their limit because of the bass and sound strained.
Rule of thumb: one 18-inch subwoofer for a party of up to a hundred, two for up to two hundred, and dual 18-inch subwoofers for a band or for outdoors.
