Green PA Hire

Environmental concerns have risen in profile in the last few years, and few companies or individuals can choose to ignore these completely.  I've read people suggesting that hiring the most efficient speakers (i.e. those that produce the most sound for a given power input) is the most environmentally friendly approach.  This suggestion does not however take into account that efficient boxes (often point source) can sometimes be the heaviest and largest.  Transportation is surely a massive factor if green concerns are paramount.
Line array system can offer a greener option as less equipment is typically required to cover the same number of people.  Of course a lot depends on the exact set-up in question - from an environmental perceptive, less is more, but from a rock'n'roll perspective, MORE is more!

Void Stasys3 Point souce speaker - fantastic sound, but heavy

A 10KW PA system will only use an average of around 2000W, with odd peaks above this.  This of course depends on how hard the system is driven.  But moving this equipment on a 200 mile round trip does have an environmental impact.
The solution, at least in some instances, may be to use firms local to the event where possible.

If you're looking to hire a line array or point source speaker system, have a look at my website, www.soundtruth.co.uk

Help, my speakers are blown!

If you've worked with, hired, or used sound systems for long enough, you'll come across this scenario.  In my case, two powered subs came back from a PA hire job not working.  A quick test with a multimeter across the terminals of the drivers and a smell of burning confirmed the worst... basically the voice coils had melted.
This is about the most common reason for a speaker to blow.  In my case, the unsupervised DJ had ran the system into the clip lights all evening.  Even with limiters, this can cause square waves to pass through to your speakers, which is bad for both the voice coils and the speaker cones themselves.
The only remedy in the case of a melted voice coil is to replace the driver.  The cost could be from £20 to £400 depending on the speakers you have.  Of course, more expensive equipment is less likely to sustain this kind of damage, but it can still happen, and it's even more expensive when it does!

Driver from a Yamaha MSR800W sub-woofer

Blown voice coil removed from the driver