70 volt commercial audio systems are a powerful tool to use to make audio work effectively for your business, restaurant, school, or any other commercial application, especially if you take advantage of their multi-zone and multi-source audio capabilities. But first, you have to understand what is a multi-zone amplifier and how to set up a multi-zone speaker system.
We have created a beginner’s introduction to 70 volt commercial multi-source multi-zone audio control systems to help you better understand how to build a multi-zone audio system as well as explain 70-volt technology, tap settings, volume controls, and the difference in volume zones and true multi-zone sound systems.
What is 70 Volt?
70-volt is a technology that allows you to take multiple speakers and run each one at a fixed wattage and a constant voltage. You typically take one speaker wire and run it from the audio amplifier to multiple different speakers in a line, sometimes referred to as daisy-chaining.
What are taps/tap settings?
70-volt speakers have a built-in or mounted transformer that allows you to change the amount of power the speaker will draw. This is what is referred to as a “tap” or “tap setting”, and it allows us to determine how much wattage each speaker is getting.
It’s important to note that anytime we're building a commercial audio system, we need to make sure that our 70v amplifier has enough power and that we have adequate headroom. Approximately 20% of headroom is desired on an amplifier. So that means when we add up all of our 70-volt tap settings, we want to be under 20% of the amplifier’s wattage capabilities.
Creating Volume Zones with Tap Settings
One of the easiest ways to create multi-volume zones with a traditional single-zone 70-volt amplifier is to adjust the tap settings of your speakers for the different volume levels. For example, if we were designing a sound system for a restaurant, we would have a couple of speakers for the bar or for the main dining area, and a couple of small ceiling speakers for the restroom and for the hallway. In order to make the experience a little bit more customized for your space, we would create zones by setting some speakers at their top tap setting and some speakers at their lowest setting to create different volume levels in the main dining versus the restroom. Sometimes this is all the “zoning” we need.
- Since you are able to set each speaker at a different tap setting this allows you to set a lower or higher wattage based on where the speakers are being installed.
- The disadvantage of this is that the volume difference for each space is fixed after installation - Unless you want to pull the speakers out to change the tap setting on the back of each one.
Controlling Volume with Volume Controllers
If you need additional volume adjustments we can add in-wall or in-rack volume controls. Volume controls allow you to wire from the 70v amplifier to your volume control, and then out to the speaker so that you can attenuate the wattage that’s going from the amplifier to the speaker itself. We can think of volume controls a lot like dimmer knobs for lights where you run from your electrical panel to your dimmer knob out to your light fixture. You adjust the volume or the knob on the dimmer and you lower the light or in this case volume or wattage coming out of the speaker.
- Volume controls allow you to wire from your amplifier to the controller and then into your speakers.
- This allows you to control the volume with the wall controller instead of on your amplifier.
- There are a lot of different types of volume controls available, white and black decora, stainless steel, keylock, with all levels of wattages.
Creating Volume Zones with Volume Controls
Another way to add volume zones to your application is by wiring multiple runs from the audio amplifier to multiple individual wall volume controls or in parallel to multiple individual volume controls and then connect your speakers. This will allow you to control the volume separately in each area that you’ve installed a controller and is a great way to create multiple volume zones. However, if we go back to the restaurant that we talked about earlier, with a single zone commercial amplifier, we can add these additional zones with our volume controls, but all of the speakers are going to be playing the exact same audio source in all areas. That means if we go to page to tell table 32 that their food is ready it's going to come out of all of the speakers. That's because we only have one main input zone or source zone.
- You can wire in several different volume controls connected to separate sets of speakers in different rooms or different areas of one room.
- This allows you to control the volume separately in that space from the rest of the spaces.
- When creating volume zones you are restricted to still playing the same audio source throughout the space. It is only the volume level that can be controlled separately.
TRUE Multi-Zone Speaker Systems
For some applications, it works great to only have multiple volume zones, but sometimes we need a true multi-source multi-zone audio system. Thinking back to our restaurant example, we want to play different music in the main dining and lighter volume different music in the restrooms, or maybe we have an open ceiling area where we want to play the big game. For this type of application, you need a 70v multi-zone multi-source amplifier, like the Pure Resonance Audio RZMA120BT which is a 4 zone commercial multi-zone Bluetooth mixer-amplifier. Each output can play its own input source or any combination of input sources.
- For a truly multi-zone audio system, you’ll need a commercial amplifier with multiple zones.
- A multi-zone amplifier allows you to connect a separate chain of speakers to each zone and fully control each zone independently.
- This means you can send a different audio source to each of your zones.
- We then have the ability to mix and match the number of speakers and wattages we have them tapped at in each zone.
- You can also connect your volume controls in each zone for more control over the audio in that space.
As always, make sure to check how much wattage you have to work with per zone and give yourself 20% headroom.
If you have questions about multi-source or multi-zone amplifiers or music systems, give us a call at (888)-256-4112, or email us at [email protected]. Our sound system experts are always happy to help!
