Spec me a bluetooth speaker for a warehouse

[Megahurtz400]

Hi guys,

Looking for a speaking for our warehouse, about 3000 sq ft.

Must be bluetooth, but doesn't need to be portable as it will be sitting in once place.

Budget of around £150.

Not looking for audiophile quality, just something loud enough to fill a decent space while working during the evenings/weekends and the office staff aren't in to moan about the volume

Cheers!

 

[FurryLemon]

That's around 279m2.

That's a tall order! Outside of about 50ft it won't be audible in a quiet environment, even less with warehouse noise.

Best bet would be a site radio. Makita one with DAB/Bluetooth can be had for around budget on amazon.

 

[Megahurtz400]

That's around 279m2.

That's a tall order! Outside of about 50ft it won't be audible in a quiet environment, even less with warehouse noise.

Best bet would be a site radio. Makita one with DAB/Bluetooth can be had for around budget on amazon.

It's quite a quiet warehouse, was thinking of going down the site radio route!

 

[lucid]

Hi guys,

Looking for a speaking for our warehouse, about 3000 sq ft.

Must be bluetooth, but doesn't need to be portable as it will be sitting in once place.

Budget of around £150.

Not looking for audiophile quality, just something loud enough to fill a decent space while working during the evenings/weekends and the office staff aren't in to moan about the volume

Cheers!

Ha-Ha-Ha....... I don't know if you realise it, but what you've just asked for is the AV equivalent of "spec me a £16,000 pick-up truck to pull this 26 tonne double axel trailer"

The size of the space you want to fill is going to cause two problems. The first is that sound dissipates over distance. The second (and related issue) is echo, or more accurately, reverberation. The sound will bounce off any hard surfaces and these reflections will compete and possibly swamp the direct sound and so make it hard to understand what's being played. It's the same problem that you used to have with the PA systems in railways stations and stadiums. It was hard to make out the announcements because of all the reverberation.

What all this means is that to even get the sound to the other end of the warehouse, you'll have to have the speaker on so loud that it will blast out anyone within a 30ft range (implications for noise at work, hearing loss etc etc), and what sound does make it any distance won't actually be more than just a jumbled mess.

There are mains powered PA speakers with Bluetooth for under £150. Here's something. Forget about filling a warehouse though. It's too tall an order.

 

[Megahurtz400]

Ha-Ha-Ha....... I don't know if you realise it, but what you've just asked for is the AV equivalent of "spec me a £16,000 pick-up truck to pull this 26 tonne double axel trailer"

The size of the space you want to fill is going to cause two problems. The first is that sound dissipates over distance. The second (and related issue) is echo, or more accurately, reverberation. The sound will bounce off any hard surfaces and these reflections will compete and possibly swamp the direct sound and so make it hard to understand what's being played. It's the same problem that you used to have with the PA systems in railways stations and stadiums. It was hard to make out the announcements because of all the reverberation.

What all this means is that to even get the sound to the other end of the warehouse, you'll have to have the speaker on so loud that it will blast out anyone within a 30ft range (implications for noise at work, hearing loss etc etc), and what sound does make it any distance won't actually be more than just a jumbled mess.

There are mains powered PA speakers with Bluetooth for under £150. Here's something. Forget about filling a warehouse though. It's too tall an order.

Cheers for your reply

Although I get what you're saying, this is only going to be used when me and the other owner of the business are doing warehouse work in the evenings/weekends (Well we're the only two employees apart from the accounts lady, small business and just moved into a bigger warehouse). So we're not really after perfect quality sound, in every part of the space, just something we can put loud music on when we're in there alone.

I originally posted this in GD because I didn't need audiophile quality gear

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Hi guys,

Looking for a speaking for our warehouse, about 3000 sq ft.

Must be bluetooth, but doesn't need to be portable as it will be sitting in once place.

Budget of around £150.

Not looking for audiophile quality, just something loud enough to fill a decent space while working during the evenings/weekends and the office staff aren't in to moan about the volume

Cheers!

your best bet is either Steljes NS3 which is £189 or buying t echo dot 3rd gens and using them in stereo speaker mode and having them placed at either end of the warehouse about a third of the way in. i assume the warehouse has wifi throughout.

so if the warehouse was 100m long, you would place one speaker at 33m deep in the middle then another at 66m deep in the middle.

 

[lucid]

Cheers for your reply

Although I get what you're saying, this is only going to be used when me and the other owner of the business are doing warehouse work in the evenings/weekends (Well we're the only two employees apart from the accounts lady, small business and just moved into a bigger warehouse). So we're not really after perfect quality sound, in every part of the space, just something we can put loud music on when we're in there alone.

I originally posted this in GD because I didn't need audiophile quality gear

We aren't talking audiophile...... not by a long long long shot.

I wouldn't put audiophile gear in to a huge enclosed space because of the problems I outlined in the previous post. PA gear is the right solution. It's crude but robust gear designed for playing loud. That's why night clubs, raves, pubs, discos, concerts etc have stonking great sound systems on stage with room acoustics designed to tame the reverberation, or you need speakers dotted around the place so that the sound from them reaches the listeners at a louder level than the reverb sound.

One speaker close to where someone is listening.... Yep, that'll work because it doesn't have to play loud so the reflected won't be so much of an issue; if the volume isn't very high then the sound will have reduced enough in level before it hits too many reflective surfaces so it won't compete so much with the direct sound from the speaker.

One speaker, playing bloody loud, at the other end of the warehouse to "fill the space with sound".... Nope.


The only time that you stand a hope in hell of getting one speaker to fill a space is when the speaker is bloody powerful and the walls, floor and ceiling plus any other reflective surfaces are treated to absorb sound. No warehouse I have ever fitted paging or background music systems to has ever provided that magic combination.

You came here for advice. Some of us here (myself included) do this for a living. Of course it's up to you whether you accept any advice offered, it's no skin of our noses, were just trying to save you the time and trouble trying to move a 26 tonne trailer with small pickup truck.

In the end it's your money, and it's not a lot either, but it's all your choice. Try it for yourself; try putting the speaker somewhere further away and whacking the volume up. Unless the warehouse acoustics are amazing - a one off, even - then the sound will be a big old indistinct mess, and whoever is working nearest the speaker will end up with ringing ears and a huge headache.