Our church here in Chiang Mai and just purchased a new building that can accommodate 400+ persons. We use all kinds of instruments in our service including electric and acoustic. We will also be installing large screen video equipment to show DVD's. The hall is three times wider than it is long with no pillars. The ceiling is peeked in the center at around 14 feet then slops down to 11 feet at both the front and back.

My question is how many watts should my amplifiers be?

We will also be using a monitor system for the stage. How big should the monitor amplifier be?

I will also be building the speakers and system (crossovers etc.). It is hard to get good speakers here unless you pay a fortune.

I have some experience at building this as I help build an audio and video recording studio at a university here in 1990. We bought the equipment in Hong Kong but had an unlimited budget then. We are somewhat limited with our budget here at the church. Speakers and amps here are made in China and very cheap. I just need to know what to purchase (size of amps and speakers Bass, mid and high.)

If someone good give me a general idea to get started would be great. We have time for planning as we have a lot of work to do to get the building ready.

Randy Gaudet

• http://AudioRoundTable.com/PiSpeakers

• http://AudioRoundTable.com/BillFitzmaurice

Electrovoice (EV) Speakers are a good all round value and should run you around $2000.
If not, you can also look at PEavey (cheaper but worse).
just some ideas. Go to zzounds to get some ideas.

-AKHILESH