Room size vs. number of people

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The Wizard Of OZ

Well-Known DJ
Dec 13, 2007
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I was wondering. What size rooms accommodate what number of people generally speaking?

Trafficgoo was talking about needing a sound system for 600 people for an upcoming gig, but that's got to be a huge room or outside. I just did a show and was told there were over 200 people there. That place is pretty big, I'm estimating around 5000sq. ft.-but I could be way off?-and the place was packed.

I'm not asking about how much sound equipment is needed, I'm just wondering with tables and chairs and all, what size room is needed to comfortably accommodate 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 etc.?
 
All I know is it takes a gymnasium to have a dance floor for 1500, and it's a little small for 2000+. For 2000-2500 and beyond, you need a big fieldhouse (the kind with multiple full size basketball courts). At least if you want room for all of them dancing. Then again, our stereo does take up a little space in the room too.
 
Ok, so what are the dimensions of a gymnasium?

The room I did the other day with around 200 people I estimate to be 50'x100'. That's 5,000 sq. ft. and the bar is about 600 sq. ft. and the stage is maybe 300 sq. ft.
 
A small single court gym might be in the 5000 sq ft range (a basketball court itself is 94x50). A larger fieldhouse might be 20,000 sq ft or more. I don't count bleachers as that's not useable space. For a school dance of 2000 you need close to 10,000 for the dance floor....more isn't bad. If they want tables, then add a little more room, but generally not many are necessary or used anyway so that can be kept to a minimum.
 
Hmmmm, I need to pace out that room to get a rough idea of it's size just to satisfy my curiosity. Who knows it might only be 50x75?

Anyways, I think it's good to have some idea of how many people can fit inside different room sizes/sq. ft. so you can have some idea of how many speakers, amps etc. you need.
 
Wiz, no offense, but as each venue is different, so too are the acoustics for each room that you will play, and so too will the need for filling each of those rooms take different amounts and types of equipment.

Allow me to give you some specifics:

For the most part, the majority of wedding receptions that I do average 125 people. Most of those receptions take place in a ballroom setting that is designed to hold at least 200 people with tables. In my experience (and I have a ton of it), that size reception needs no more than (2) two Yamaha bookshelf size cabinets loaded with a 12" woofer and horn, and (1) one small sub cabinet loaded with a 15" driver. I usually place the speakers on tripods and hoist the extension poles as far in the air as they will go. This way, with the music over everyone's heads, I don't have to drive them hard for them to be heard.

I guarantee that I can squeeze more well defined tight sound out of this small bi-amped system than most people can with two larger powered EON type speakers. ***NO OFFENSE TO JBL USERS - I OWN THEM TOO!***

The JBL reference is only for size and reference sake.

I am attaching a very crude mock up of a typical ballroom setting in bitmap image form that I am usually faced with. I would just about venture to say too that this type setup is what most of us are faced with on a regular basis.

The thing is, that most of us that do wedding reception events, are booked into ballroom type settings - not your typical VFW hall or Elks lodge type setting. And the majority of us aren't singers, so our needs for sound re-enforcement are MUCH different than yours.

What I'm getting at is that the acoustic properties of a typical Elks room (in my experience) are MUCH different than your typical country club ballroom setting. Now granted, I don't have any idea of what your typical setting is - I'm only guessing from your previous posts. But I would almost be willing to put money on it that your usual and typical setting is in a VFW or coffee shop type setting.

AND, to go one further, the majority of us use a certain combination of PROFESSIONAL powered speakers or PROFESSIONAL FOH sound type combinations - not the hodgepodge, thrown together type equipment you have told us you use. What that means (and I don't mean ANY dis-respect here) is that the sound we achieve with what we use is going to sound different and most likely much better and more well defined than what you are producing.

I'm attaching the Mackie tri-amped rack I use regularly so you can hopefully get a better idea of what I'm talking about. The amp rack has ALOT of processing equipment that helps give me that smooth and well defined sound I like to give my clients.

Enjoy.
 

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The thread was specifically asking how many people different room sizes could accommodate.

This wasn't intended to be a technical/gear thread, I wasn't asking for advice, just looking for some simple information about how many people could fit in particular room sizes.

I do quite well with my hodgepodge of gear. You have no idea what I sound like. I use EV speakers and Sennheiser mics in my hodgepodge. The only thing in my hodgepodge that I need to upgrade is my amp which does just fine until I can afford a new, more powerful one. For what I do I don't need racks full of processing, but hey, if you need all of that go for it.

In my area I see lots of other performers like myself who are working regularly and they don't have gear as good as mine or sound as good as what I have.

But this thread has nothing to do with that.
 
The Wizard Of OZ said:
The thread was specifically asking how many people different room sizes could accommodate.

This wasn't intended to be a technical/gear thread, I wasn't asking for advice, just looking for some simple information about how many people could fit in particular room sizes.

I do quite well with my hodgepodge of gear. You have no idea what I sound like. I use EV speakers and Sennheiser mics in my hodgepodge. The only thing in my hodgepodge that I need to upgrade is my amp which does just fine until I can afford a new, more powerful one. For what I do I don't need racks full of processing, but hey, if you need all of that go for it.

In my area I see lots of other performers like myself who are working regularly and they don't have gear as good as mine or sound as good as what I have.

But this thread has nothing to do with that.
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Actually Wiz, if you go back and re-read your previous post about needing to "pace the room" :

The Wizard Of OZ said:
Anyways, I think it's good to have some idea of how many people can fit inside different room sizes/sq. ft. so you can have some idea of how many speakers, amps etc. you need.
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You are asking EXACTLY how much gear it would take to fill a room that size with sound.

So, unless you didn't want this thread to be about the amount of gear it would take to fill a room that size with sound vs. the number of people it would hold at any given time, I suggest you go back and re-phrase the question, because I can guarantee that everyone else that reads this thread came away with EXACTLY the same thing I did, and that was that you were wanting to know how much gear it would take -

The Wizard Of OZ said:
Anyways, I think it's good to have some idea of how many people can fit inside different room sizes/sq. ft. so you can have some idea of how many speakers, amps etc. you need.
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So unless you want this thread to become a pissing match, since you seem to have gotten your jollies in a wad over my response, I suggest you enlighten us or rephrase the question.

Oh, and as for your hodgepodge of equipment - if you go back and read my first response, I said very nicely and eloquently that I meant absolutely no offense. Apparently you didn't take it that way because you got gruff with your reply.

So, allow me if you will, just to copy and paste something from an earlier gear thread that you can find here: http://www.ourdjtalk.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=318208

I'm condensing it, taking out the most obvious part here:

The Wizard Of OZ said:
. . . Anyways, as I hook my gear up trying new things I just recently ran both my old RS Optimus 250 amp(free) and my Peavey PV-1500($140 off craig's list) at 2 ohms....
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Did I take your response out of context? Perhaps.

Did I misunderstand your original question? Maybe

Did you piss me off with your response? ABSOLUTELY!

Do I claim to be better than you or anyone else here? No.

My equipment does work for me, because I built it to do what I would need it to do for any given situation. But that's just me - I'm an engineer - I like equipment that does what it's designed to do.

Now, I realize you are just starting out with only a year or so of experience under your belt, and you have questions. We all had lots of questions about what would and wouldn't work when we were starting out.

So, when one or more of us take the time to respond to one or more of your questions as we see fit, keep in mind that we are responding to the question the way we read it. Not necessarily the way you meant it.
 
You have anger issues and who knows what other emotional problems. I hope you won't waste your valuable time responding to any more of my ridiculous questions.

I'm not an engineer or a tech, I'm a talented entertainer. For some reason you're insecure and have spent $100,000 to compensate for something. I stand on stage in front of hundreds of people with my shoddy, substandard gear and sing for 3-4 hours ALONE-no bass player, no drummer, no guitar player-JUST ME. Can you do that? I think not.

The funny thing is it was YOU who turned this into a pissing match and distorted the intent of the thread which is a violation of your precious TOS that you like to preach about.

If my SKB rack, Sennheiser e835 mics, 4 sets of EV speakers and my Alesis mixer are a shoddy hodgepodge because I'm taking my time in choosing a new amp, then so be it. You could put how much I care about you and your opinion on the head of a pin.

I can tell you this. I have gone from zero to performing(not pushing buttons) in front of hundreds of people in a very short period of time. I get LOTS of complements and I didn't spend $100,000 on gear. I have however invested lots of time and effort in learning new songs, rehearsing and refining my skills.

Nothing you can say will diminish what I have accomplished in a short period of time and nothing YOU can say can wipe out all the compliments I have received for my voice, my song choices and YES, the sound quality of my rigs. How's that for a pissing match?
 
Really people why do any of you bother to reven respond to this idiot!

Sorry Wiz, but you are an idiot, for proof of that FACT just go back and read each post you make asking for advice and then jumping down the throats of those who offer you good advice.

The formula that you are looking for is 9 square feet per person and 3 watts per person!
 
Please feel free to ignore my threads Thunder because I may be an idiot but you are a jerk(not the real word I'm thinking of) and I didn't ask for any advice, I asked how many people can fit in different sized rooms-that's not asking for advice. Somehow Val could read, understand and respond appropriately but spakie and you who have a hard on for me can't resist trying to feel superior and talking down to me. If I'm such an idiot then why are you on my thread? Hmmmm? Who's the idiot?
 
Wiz,

The word is A&&hole and i don't mind at all, most people who know me consider me one!

As for responding to anything else you post you are correct i shouldn't have and will not in the future!
 
Back on topic- this is one of those questions answered in one word" depends"

Just like sound, this is subjective. 100 people. Square, rectangle or round tables. 5/10/15 per table?

Standard folding chairs. Plastic Chairs?
Differnt states also have a way of defining Max Occupancy per room.

Since we are DJ's, What about dancefloor size? Hpw much space will this use up.

If its a buffet, then there another space in the room thats taking up lots of real estate.


What might be comfortable for 50 people in a room could be a squeeze for the other 50 people.

Not sure if that made any sense.
 
The main reason I asked is because the new venue I'm performing at is much larger than what I have been used to before. I was surprised when they told me that there were a little over 200 people recently and the room seemed packed to the gills to me. Most tables are for 4, some for 6, some are long tables that will hold a dozen or more. The dance floor is big and the bar is large too, it probably seats 30 or more around the three sides.

The room noise was so loud a couple of times it nearly drowned out the music, but I was keeping the volume down because I was told that someone complained the last time I was there that I was too loud.

I had a Johnny Cash impersonator come up to perform a few songs during my show and he asked me to crank the the music and the mic way up. I cranked it up much louder than what I was at before until I saw the clip light on the amp flutter and there was slight feedback-so I backed off slightly.
 
The Wizard Of OZ said:
The main reason I asked is because the new venue I'm performing at is much larger than what I have been used to before. I was surprised when they told me that there were a little over 200 people recently and the room seemed packed to the gills to me. Most tables are for 4, some for 6, some are long tables that will hold a dozen or more. The dance floor is big and the bar is large too, it probably seats 30 or more around the three sides.

The room noise was so loud a couple of times it nearly drowned out the music, but I was keeping the volume down because I was told that someone complained the last time I was there that I was too loud.

I had a Johnny Cash impersonator come up to perform a few songs during my show and he asked me to crank the the music and the mic way up. I cranked it up much louder than what I was at before until I saw the clip light on the amp flutter and there was slight feedback-so I backed off slightly.
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OK then - why didn't you include this part of the scenario in the original post? It would have helped explain things a lot more clearly and no one's blood pressure would have gone over the boiling point.

If I had been in possession of these kinds of facts in the first place, my answer would have been much like eezee's.

This is the reason I stated about room acoustics in the first part of my response.

Now, this actually turns into an educational thread.

In closing this post and this thread, I am going to not only ask nicely, but RECOMMEND strongly, that you issue a public apology to Thunder for the name calling (which crosses the line of the T.O.S.), and that you send me a P.M. apology as well.

Otherwise, I'll up the ante on the already incurred infraction that you've received.

My last words to any and all -

THINK BEFORE YOU POST!
 
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