Tech Tools / Calculator
Speaker Coverage & SPL
Choose a powered PA speaker or enter your own specs to estimate sound level and audience coverage.
Planning aid only. Free-field point-source approximation. Multiple speakers can cause interference; overlap is not guaranteed uniform coverage. This is not a hearing-safety assessment. Verify equipment specifications and on-site conditions before the show.
Setup
Results
How to use this tool
Choose a powered speaker preset to load its published peak SPL and horizontal / vertical coverage. Adjust your distance, planning margin and loss allowance. Peak-at-listener = published peak − 20 log₁₀(distance in meters) − losses. Planning SPL subtracts your chosen margin; it is not a measured continuous rating.
For passive speakers, use a sensitivity rating with a known reference. A 2.83 V rating corresponds to 2.83²/R watts; normalize it to 1 W before adding power gain.
Lp(r) = sensitivity(1 W/1 m) + 10 log₁₀(P) − 20 log₁₀(r meters) − losses. Maximum is the same estimate at the entered continuous power limit, not a measured peak rating. Coverage width and height = 2r tan(angle/2), measured on a plane perpendicular to the speaker axis.
Speaker count = ceiling[audience width / (coverage width × (1 − overlap))]. It estimates side-by-side horizontal coverage only, not a full deployment design. No SPL gain is added for multiple speakers.
FAQ
Does this predict real maximum SPL?
No. Powered presets start from a manufacturer peak rating and apply free-field distance loss. The passive mode estimates output from sensitivity and power. Neither models the room, limiter behavior, frequency-dependent coverage or sustained output.
Does it work for line arrays?
Not as an array model. It assumes a single point source in the far field and inverse-square loss. Use measured array prediction for a real system.
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