What is Daisy-Chaining Speakers?
14th in a series about PA gear and how to operate them.
There are moments when you’re playing music through a boombox or you have a specific song on your MP3 player that’s part of a presentation which the audience needs to hear. A boombox is only so powerful and consumer MP3 players come with only one set of headphone jacks. So how can you possibly convey the wonderful sounds of music to a larger audience with the use of your existing media players? The answer is as easy as integrating multiple portable speakers into your program, whether it’s for athletics, dance, education or general presentations, so you can obtain a farther reach.
Before we go about linking other speakers, if you want to connect an external music source (an MP3 player for example) to the “master” PA, make sure this is done using the “line input” feature. Once that’s done, we can return to connecting other speakers. If you’re dealing with larger audiences, the way you add additional PAs to a single speaker is through a feature called the “line output”. This takes the audio which would have been amplified from just the single speaker and sends it to the next connected speaker so it too can play the music (or voice). So no matter what your audio source, whether it’s coming from an on-board or external media player through the “line input”, additional speakers can take the audio signal to a greater level. (The PowerPro PA-919, PA919SD, PresentationPro PA319, PA300, and PA150 portable speakers all have the “line out” feature. The non-powered PA919SP can also be connected using one of the ¼” switched/unswitched speaker out jacks with an SC-50 cable.) Though your audience may be a distance from you, you can bet that linking multiple speakers will cast your musical or vocal message across to the masses.
RCA & XLR line outputs shown on a PA919
This process is commonly known as “daisy-chaining” (linking one speaker to another which then links to a third and so on and so forth) by connecting the line output of one to the line input of another. This can be done using the speaker’s RCA line out or the audio XLR line out, depending on what cables you have available. Hooking up these speakers using a cabled connection provides the flexibility of placing them around an auditorium.
If connecting speakers in this wired manner is too much of a hastle, many of the speakers mentioned above can also be wirelessly daisy-chained through one of their common 16-channel UHF frequencies. Regardless of each speaker’s placement, you would not be limited by having to return to the speaker to adjust the volume level – that’s what the handy RC-300 is for.
Either way, the possibilities of enhancing the amplification of your voice or music by connecting additional speakers or media players to portable speakers are endless. More importantly, you can find comfort in knowing that you now have the ability to project your audio in venues big and small without worrying if the people sitting at the very top of the bleachers, concert hall or auditorium can hear it.
Read the next article in the series, the previous article, or return to the first article.
