In addition to my experience and training as a Master of Ceremonies for Hawaii weddings, I also have the experience as a live sound engineer, and with this knowledge, this post will be helpful if you are planning an outdoor wedding in Hawaii.
If you’ve ever been to a major outdoor rock concert or festival, you probably noticed that the sound company usually hangs their main speakers high in the air:
Images courtesy Rat Sound Systems
To understand why professional sound companies do this, we need to get into some audio theory and acoustic science, which I’ll try to keep simple, so bear with me.
When sound waves leave a speaker, the high and mid-frequency sounds are generally directional–they travel in the direction they are pointed at. Sound waves are also easily absorbed. So if you stack speakers on the ground and point them at your audience, the front 3-5 rows get painfully blasted by the loud sound. And because the front 3-5 rows absorb most of the sound, the guests in the back get a more muffled sound, which can be hard to understand. Many inexperienced sound guys will compensate for this by turning the volume up. As the volume increases, it gets even more painfully loud for the front rows, and the people in the back get a more muddied, muffled sound.
But if the speakers are placed above the heads of the front rows, then the sound can travel farther, since it won’t be absorbed by bodies in the front row. At the same time, the front rows won’t get blasted by the loud sound.
So how does this apply to your outdoor wedding?
Unless you’re hiring an independent sound contractor to provide the overall sound for your event, your DJ or band will usually provide the sound system for your outdoor Hawaii wedding. And many DJs are GREAT DJs…but many DJs have very little real-world experience doing live sound. So they may have a sound system set up like this:
Note the speaker placement at audience height, where the sound will get absorbed by the first two rows of your guests and muffled way in the back. Imagine your reception, where the guests up front endure a whole evening of loud music and announcements, and where your guests in the back can’t make out any of the announcements and thus begin to tune out your celebration. You wouldn’t want your guests to remember that experience, do you?
So ask (and insist) that your DJ or band place the main speakers above the heads of your front row. Whether on stands or hung from a truss, this allows the sound to be more evenly distributed among your audience, so it’s clear in the back and not so loud up front:
By doing so, you will get more out of your DJ or band’s sound system at your outdoor Hawaii wedding. Your audience will certainly appreciate it, and the even coverage will allow your guests to understand your program, enjoy the presentation, and create some wonderful memories that will last forever!
(Note: you’ll notice in the last picture that there are some speakers on the ground–these are the subwoofers, which produce the low-end bass sound. These speakers are generally kept on the ground. Getting into the audio theory and acoustic principles behind why they are placed on the ground is for another blog post, so for now, just remember, main speakers on stands above the heads of your audience, subwoofers on the ground.)