Understanding Sound Limiters and what they mean for your party or event

Portable Sound Reader

This hand­held device allows staff mem­bers to mon­i­tor sound lev­els at their cur­rent loca­tion in real-time. Venues com­mon­ly employ these tools to assess the vol­ume at the venue bound­ary, ensur­ing that the deci­bel lev­el does not sur­pass a spec­i­fied thresh­old and there­by pre­vent­ing dis­tur­bances to neighbors.

Traf­fic Light System

The Traf­fic Light Box serves as a wall or ceil­ing-mount­ed unit con­nect­ed to a venue’s micro­phone. It oper­ates on a col­or-cod­ed system:

• Green: Sound lev­els are with­in accept­able limits.
• Yel­low: Approach­ing the deci­bel limit.
• Red: Exceed­ing the deci­bel lim­it; pow­er may be cut.

When the red light acti­vates, per­form­ers have approx­i­mate­ly 5 sec­onds to low­er the vol­ume before pow­er is cut to the sock­ets they are con­nect­ed to. The sys­tem may reset auto­mat­i­cal­ly after a pre­de­fined time or require man­u­al inter­ven­tion by venue staff. If tripped three times in one evening, the sys­tem may be locked for the remain­der of that event, con­clud­ing the par­tic­u­lar live performance.

The poten­cy of the traf­fic light sys­tem is influ­enced by the micro­phone place­ment and the cal­i­brat­ed deci­bel lev­el. Posi­tioned direct­ly above the band, it reacts faster and more sen­si­tive­ly, poten­tial­ly reach­ing the red sig­nal more swift­ly. Plac­ing it at a dis­tance from the per­for­mance area may afford more tol­er­ance. Typ­i­cal­ly locat­ed in the mid­dle of the space, these sys­tems can be trig­gered by guests singing and dancing.

Com­pres­sor System

In response to ongo­ing con­cerns about sound lev­els, cer­tain venues opt for a com­pres­sion sys­tem. This entails installing a venue-wide sound sys­tem that all per­form­ers must uti­lize and con­nect to. The sys­tem incor­po­rates an atten­u­a­tor or com­pres­sor, allow­ing only a spec­i­fied amount of audio sig­nal to pass through, enforc­ing a strin­gent deci­bel lim­it. Pic­ture it like an egg timer with abun­dant sand — the com­pres­sor in the mid­dle restricts the flow to main­tain a con­sis­tent out­put at the end.

These sys­tems adhere to a max­i­mum of 93dB to align with envi­ron­men­tal health reg­u­la­tions and The Con­trol of Noise at Work Reg­u­la­tions 2005 and are most like­ly cal­i­brat­ed for DJ and back­ground per­for­mances rather than for a live band. Addi­tion­al require­ments often accom­pa­ny these systems:

1. Per­form­ers are man­dat­ed to use elec­tric drum kits.
2. Amp mod­el­ers and DI (no tra­di­tion­al gui­tar amps or extra on-stage speak­ers) are to be employed.
3. The band must uti­lize In-Ear Mon­i­tors (IEMs) to min­i­mize stage volume.