Simple PA for a Burning Man Art Car

[sfhippie]

I'm involved in building a large art car for Burning Man this year, and I've been put in charge of procuring a PA system for the rooftop deck/dancefloor. Burning Man is a week-long event in the Nevada desert that is pretty hard to describe in a few sentences. Our art car will take the form of a Zeppelin airship, built on top of a 1970's military "deuce-and-a-half" truck. The deck is about 10ft x 25 ft and sits 10 ft off the ground so I expect the sound will dissipate much faster than if it was enclosed by walls.

I've got a budget of about $1000 US. From my initial research and talking to a few folks, I'm thinking a pair of powered speakers and a powered sub should do it, at least to start. Some other parameters:

- Needs to be tough enough to survive for at least 7 days outdoors (hot days, cold nights, lots of incredibly fine alkaline dust (this desert is a dry lake bed kinda like the Bonneville Salt Flats).

- As idiot-proof as possible - there WILL be idiots involved.

So far I've been looking at:
- Behringer Eurolive B115D speakers
or
- Alto TS112A speakers
and
- Alto TSSUB15 subwoofer

My questions:
- Am I in the ballpark?
- So far I've found these for approximately the same prices at a few online stores and at Guitar Center. IS THERE A GOOD PLACE TO SEARCH FOR USED/BLEMISHED PA EQUIPMENT THAT I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT?

THANKS!
Matt
Pope of Good Hope

[grab]

The question is how much of what kind of music do you want the audience to hear how loud at what distance? (Yes, that's a lot of variables.

Also, don't forget the generator. A 12V-to-mains inverter won't cut it.

[Sam Spoons]

I think I'd be inclined to go with passive cabs so you can put the delicate bits away from extreme temps and especially that dust. The fan cooling on most active speakers will suck the dust into the amp module and destroy it in short order.

As far as the gear you suggest, dust notwithstanding, the Altos are excellent and will do the job as well as anything in your budget., loud enough on your dance floor (unless you're playing Metal or DubStep) but quickly reducing levels as you get further from the truck (which may be what you need).

[sfhippie]

We're definitely not looking to enter the art car PA arms race. A lot of cars out there are set up to provide music for a dance party on the ground by the side of the car. This is great but we don't want to compete in that arena. We just want it loud enough to provide for the roof deck itself. This is going to be a lot of dance music, electronic, pop, I'm sure some dubstep, and then when we're resting every other kind. I'm fairly certain I'll play some Credence Clearwater Revival, Robyn, Stars of the Lid, Diplo, etc.

We are getting a serious Honda RV generator (the zeppelin frame will be covered in LED's) so I'm not too worried about that.

Thanks!

[sfhippie]

I've read something about that on burningman forums. I was thinking I would try and tape up some kind of plastic cover and duct the cooling fan through an air filter of some sort. And then try to keep the speakers in the shade at all times (umbrellas?).

If we were to go with passive speakers my understanding is that the speakers themselves would be cheaper but I would need to figure out what Amp to buy.

Can you recommend an amp that would work well with, say, the Behringer B215XL's?

Do the amps also have fans that would have the same concerns?

At least it would be easier to put the amp in the shade.

Thanks
Matt

[Sam Spoons]

The amps will probably have fans too but they could be placed in a suitable enclosure (the air conditioned cab? . Speakers will survive the dust and heat pretty well, amps not so.

Behringer also do decent (for the price) amps.

Maybe if you go for actives a panel with the speakers set into it (think soffit mounted monitors in '70s recording studios) and a filtered, fan driven airflow in the back. It doesn't need to be a sophisticated system, it just needs to allow cool clean airflow around the back of the active speakers.

[James Perrett]

Do the amps also have fans that would have the same concerns?

You can buy separate filters for the fans from electronics components suppliers (like Mouser or Digikey) - just make sure you clean them regularly.

[Sam Spoons]

Do the amps also have fans that would have the same concerns?

You can buy separate filters for the fans from electronics components suppliers (like Mouser or Digikey) - just make sure you clean them regularly.

Whether they'll do the job depends on whether the fans blow cool air into the enclosure or suck hot air our. The fans in my Yamaha DXR10s do the latter so filters would have to be covering the much larger vent at the bottom of the amp panel. This may be a blessing in disguise as the larger filter area would allow more airflow which may be vital in hot conditions. Rule of thumb, if the fan is above the air vent, it'll suck air out, if below it'll blow it in (probably ) You do need to know however as it's the air entering the enclosure which needs filtering.

[Weedog]

Hey Matt - have you considered hiring a system for use here?

[sfhippie]

Thanks everyone! It's looking like our plan is going to be to buy two Behringer B115D's and the Alto sub. Someone in the group is also contributing a couple of smaller passive monitors and another passive sub run with an amp and mixer he's also bringing. I'm hoping it will be pretty straightforward to combine all these into one system. We'll look at the fan routing on the active speakers and sub and see if rigging up air filters is feasible. In any case, our plan is going to be to do a daily cleaning with compressed air and a shop vac, and to try to keep them out of direct sunlight.

I believe there are outfits that rent PA equipment for Burning Man, but we checked into them and I think we were either priced out or else we missed the boat and they were already all reserved.

Thanks for the help guys I'll let you know if it works!