— Speaker Coverage · Education & lecture
Lecture auditorium — speech-priority column, 24 x 14 m
Problem. A reverberant lecture theatre needs intelligible speech to the back row without exciting the ceiling and side walls that make the room ring. The design driver is controlled vertical coverage aimed at heads, not maximum level at the front.
Answer. This preset sizes the planner for a 24 x 14 m theatre at a conference-auditorium target, an ~18 m listener distance and 55% power, using a steerable install column (here a JBL Professional CBT 50LA-1) whose narrow vertical pattern keeps energy on the audience plane. The planner reports SPL at the rear listener and the column count the seating footprint implies.
02 / In depth
How this preset reads — the engineering view.
Speech in a hard-surfaced lecture room is a dispersion problem before a power problem. A wide point source reaches the back but lights up the ceiling on the way, lowering intelligibility; a column with tight vertical control trades a slightly more considered mounting position for a wavefront that stays on the seated audience and off the reflective planes.
The preset assumes a 24 x 14 m room, a conference-auditorium SPL target, a rear-listener distance of about 18 m and 55% power. The cabinet shown is a JBL Professional CBT 50LA-1 install column, one steerable-column option TechnoGuru specifies where suitable; other columns and steerable arrays produce a comparable input shape, so switch models in the dropdown to compare SPL and quantity.
Expect the planner to show SPL near the speech target with comfortable headroom, because the engineering value of a column here is the vertical beam pattern rather than the dB figure. For a room of this width the suggested count typically lands at a left/right pair flanking the presentation wall; a single central column can work for pure speech, but the pair is the usual convention for stereo program material and balanced coverage.
This preset does not model the room's RT60 (which determines whether the dispersion advantage survives contact with an untreated hall), the assistive-listening and lecture-capture feeds a teaching space needs, subwoofer support for program material, or the DSP and beam-steering setup that delivers the predicted pattern. Final make, model and quantity are selected after drawings and site conditions are reviewed and remain subject to project requirement, consultant or client approval and availability. Use the brief wizard or /contact to hand a safe enquiry summary to TechnoGuru's AV and acoustics scope.
What this preset deliberately does not solve
- Room reverberation (RT60) is not modelled and governs whether the column's dispersion advantage holds.
- Assistive listening, lecture capture and subwoofer support are separate system decisions.
- Column count is a coverage-triage figure; steering and final placement follow drawings and a site review.
How this preset differs from its siblings
The gym and live-event presets chase high, even music energy across an open floor; the BGM presets sit at low, unobtrusive levels. This preset is the speech-priority, reverberant-room case: a steerable column chosen for vertical pattern control at a fixed lecture audience, where the calculator shows SPL headroom and the real value is keeping the speech wavefront off the ceiling. Use it when intelligibility to the back row, not loudness, sets the brief.
03 / Hydrated calculator
Try the configuration — live.
The calculator below is preloaded with this preset’s state. Adjust any input — your URL stays shareable.
— Planner · speaker coverage
SPL, coverage radius and quantity, estimated.
Pick a brand, model and application. An indicative free-field SPL at the listener, coverage radius on the -6 dB axis and a planning-level box count for the room — a starting point for design, not a final specification. K-array, KGEAR, JBL Pro, d&b, L-Acoustics, Fonestar, Ecler.
Max SPL at listener
96
dB · target 85 dB · headroom +11 dB
Coverage radius
50.0
metres · -6 dB axis
Quantity
1
boxes for 336.0 m²
A planning link — not a quote.
- model
- JBL Professional CBT 50LA-1
- max spl
- 121 dB @1m
- spl at listener
- 93 dB · max 96 dB
- dispersion
- H 150° · V 20°
- sensitivity
- 93 dB @1W/1m
- power
- 83 W applied · 150 W RMS
- bandwidth
- 80-20000 Hz
- impedance
- 8 ohm
- coverage
- r ≈ 50.00 m · area 7854.0 m²
Constant-beamwidth column with switchable speech/music EQ. Tight 20° vertical keeps energy off the ceiling — defaults to speech intelligibility in reverberant rooms.
What changes this estimate
- Room drawings & obstructions
- Confirmed ceiling height
- Finishes & absorption in the space
- Final loudspeaker model & dispersion
A planning link — not a quote.
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Brief us on the project — with this configuration.
Presets are a typology starting point. The brief wizard captures the room geometry, programme and constraints we need to translate this configuration into a real design.