Set up and tear down – Mobile church essentials

Hey there! In this video we are going to walk through the workflow of setting up and tearing down a portable PA system.  

It is important to have a plan of action in order to increase your efficiency and make your setups  

and tear downs run quickly and smoothly, as well as keep your setup and stage areas safe and clean. 

In our example for this video, we are using two KS118 subwoofers, two K12.2 loudspeakers as our mains 

and three CP8 loudspeakers for stage monitors with a TouchMix-30 Pro mixing console.  

Your PA may use different equipment or your system may be larger, or smaller.  

The workflow and principles we will show in this video are very flexible and can be applied to any sized PA system.

The first step is to find where the available power outlets are in the room and run power drops to the stage.

You’ll need power available for your main PA loudspeakers and subwoofers, stage monitors and mixer.

If your system uses passive loudspeakers, you’ll need to run power to your amplifiers and any outboard gear.  

You’ll also need to make sure power is available for instruments on stage such as guitar amps, keyboards, etc. 

Perhaps an electric drum set is being used. All of these things will require power  

and should be considered at the start of your setup.  

Now a good practice is to calculate how much power your various devices need and spread the supply of AC power evenly across the available  

power outlets of the performance venue.   

You don’t want to overload a circuit when you start turning things on.

The power consumption for most devices is listed on the device itself,  

usually close to where the power cable is connected.

If this information is not found on the device itself, it will be listed in the user manual or specification sheet.  

For instance the K.2 series loudspeakers draw 2.2 amps of power from an outlet.

The standard amperage of an electrical outlet differs from country to country.

In the U.S. produces 15 amps. So you can safely connect a total load of 15 amps to that outlet.  

There are also outlets that can produce 20 or even 30 amps.

If you don’t know what the outlets are producing it’s best to error on the side of caution and assume that your local standard is the limit.

The K.2, taking only 2.2 amps is nowhere near that total limit for a single outlet.  

So, as an example, if were to continue to connect additional K.2 loudspeakers to the same outlet,  

we can multiply the amps that each loudspeaker draws until we reach 15 amps,   

or as close as we can without exceeding 15 amps.

With that formula, we can deduce that up to 6 K.2 loudspeakers can be connected to a single 15 amps power outlet. 

2.2 amps multiplied by 6 gives us 13.2 amps.  

Great! If we add one more however we’ll end up with 15.4 amps on that circuit

and we’ve exceeded what the outlet can handle.

Of course this can be applied to any piece of equipment, not just K.2 loudspeakers.

Ok! I promise there will be no more math. 

Know that available voltage also plays a role in the performance of your equipment.

All this to say: that a good power source is critical.

Once your power drops are in place, it’s time to setup the subwoofers.   

It’s best to place the subwoofers in front of the stage or performance area to reduce feedback from the microphones.  

In our setup, using two subwoofers, we’ll place them on either side of the stage or performance area  

making sure that we have some distance from any nearby walls.

This will reduce reflections, which can lead to phasing issues and low frequency cancelation, which roughly translates to  

“It won’t sound good”.

If your setup has only one subwoofer, simply place that sub on one side of the performance area. 

Or if you can place it in the center, in front of the performance space,  

or possibly just below the stage, without creating physical or visual obstructions,  

this would be ideal for creating a more balanced sound.  

If your setup does not utilize subwoofers, skip this step and move right on the step 3. Which is…. 

Mounting the top loudspeakers above the subwoofers.

In this example we are going to mount our K12.2 loudspeakers above our subwoofers using poles.

The poles screw into the receptacle on the sub and each K12.2 has pole cups underneath 

so that they can easily be placed atop the poles.  

In a single subwoofer setup, one loudspeaker will be placed on top of the sub   

with the second being placed on a loudspeaker stand. Unless you’ve chosen to place the sub in the center.  

This configuration requires both top loudspeakers to be placed on stands.

It doesn’t make much sense to have a loudspeaker right in the center of the stage .   

Some setups may also require the loudspeakers to be angled down slightly. If the loudspeakers are up on the stage for instance,  

or any situation where they are at an elevation where the loudspeakers are pointing over the top  

of the audiences heads. To maximize the audiences listening experience, the loudspeakers should, in fact be pointed at the listener’s heads.

Or more specifically, their ears.

The reason for this is to keep directional high frequencies focusing to the listeners’ ears to optimize definition,  

clarity and intelligibility.

With our Main PA loudspeakers setup,  

let’s set up and position our stage monitors. In this example we are using 3 monitors.  

The position will be dependent on how many performers there are and what their needs are.

If we have a full band setup, with electric guitar, bass, drums, keys and vocals, for example,  

you’ll have to distribute these efficiently to support all of the performers in the best way.

Using 3 monitors in a setup like this, two of them could be placed in front of the stage to support guitar, bass and vocals,  

with the third in the rear of the stage to support the drummer and keyboardist.  

Or you could use in-ear monitoring systems for the drummer and keyboardist,   

which would allow for the three stage monitors to serve the guitarist, bassist and singer.   

Maybe you have a smaller ensemble and the 3 work out perfectly, or perhaps you don’t even need all 3. Maybe you need more! 

Now that we have the main PA loudspeakers and monitors setup, let’s run power to these components.

We’ll connect the subwoofers and main top loudspeakers to the closest and most appropriate power drop that we installed in step 1. 

Next we’ll plug in all of our stage monitors.  

It is best practices to keep the power drops turned off at this stage.

We’ll turn the power on last, after everything is setup and connected. 

When connecting all of your loudspeakers

make sure to keep your cabling towards the outside of the stage as much as possible

to reduce clutter on the stage or performance space and help keep people from tripping over them.

Once everything is setup we’ll go back over the cabling and tape it down to secure it further. 

While we’re running power to the loudspeakers, we can also set up our mixer.

In this example we are using a TouchMix-30 Pro. This can be setup in a location that is most appropriate for the room you are in.  

It could be on the side of the stage, or even the back of the stage.

It could be off in a corner, or perhaps you have a dedicated Front of House mix position and the mixer can be set up there.   

This also may depend on who is going to be operating the mixer.

There could be a dedicated mix engineer or one of the performers may be running sound themselves from the stage.

In any scenario, the mixer location should be determined to best serve the performance and who will be operating it.

The great thing is, this mixer can be controlled 100 percent remotely using an iPad or Android tablet,  

allowing for a great deal of flexibility in the physical placement of the mixer. 

Alright. Now it’s time to run the audio connections.

We’ll start by running XLR cables from the main Left and Right outputs of the mixer 

to our subwoofers on the right and left side.  

Then we’ll run other XLR cables from the output of the subwoofer to the top loudspeakers above.  

If a single sub is used, apply this step to the side with the subwoofer  

and run the opposite side directly to the second loudspeaker.  

If you are not using subs, run both mixer outputs to your loudspeakers directly.  

In some cases, you may want independent control of your subwoofers.  

In that case, you’ll run your subwoofers separately from an Aux on the mixer.  

In this scenario, run an XLR from the chosen Aux output to one subwoofer and another XLR from the output of that sub to your second subwoofer.  

Then connect the Right and Left outputs on the mixer to your right and left top loudspeakers.

Now we’ll connect our stage monitors using the Aux outputs,  

making sure to be aware of what connections are running to what monitors on stage.  

We’ll use Aux output 1 for our first stage monitor. 

Followed by 2 and 3 for the second and third.  

Once we turn everything on and begin sound check, we’ll label these in the mixer as well. 

The final step is to connect all of your stage sources to the mixer.

We'll cover this in much more detail in the next section.