Trying to build a very unusual PA system

[maestrodave]

Hello!

I'm new to this forum and I joined because I'm in over my head with building a PA system. I am working on a "street opera" to be performed outdoors in the streets of Chicago. All of the PA equipment needs to be battery powered. The musicians are all on mobile platforms built out of deconstructed shopping carts. The chorus of Bearded Ladies are driven around by a forklift.

I have bought a bunch of vintage speaker cabinets, horns, etc from ebay and now I need to refurbish them with new drivers, speakers, etc. They will be mounted on the 15 foot mechanical horse we are building.

I can and will go into more detail but I'm wondering if there is anyone out there that might have a particular interest in this kind of spectacle production and knows more about cobbling together this PA system than I do. I have pictures of everything.

We have experience with using power invertors to run amps from 12v batteries but I'm curious if there is a way to use car stereo amps to drive everything. Thinking that the batteries will last longer! But most car stereo amps I've found are 4 ohms...

Hope to hear from someone soon.

Thanks
Dave

[BERENO]

Welcome to the Forum Dave!

It sounds like you have one heck of a project ahead of you... it would probably be a good idea to post this question in the everything else section... Im not thinking too many people would be looking in the introductions section with the intent of helping; you might get more responses in another section.

Once again, welcome to the forums, I have only been here a little while and I am enjoying it a lot

[Hugh]

G'Day Dave
I had a similar challenge - PA'ing a small folk festival on the banks of a river miles from any power. I used 6 12v car batteries borrowed from - duh - 6 cars.
PA Amps almost always run on split supplies of +- 36 volts or more depending on the power of the Amp. I was using a 100W stereo PA amp whose supply was around +- 35 Volts, so I hooked directly to the amplifier power supply rails 3 12V batteries for each supply.
A bit messy with battery clip leads etc. and I had to be very careful to make sure all was connected, but this arrangement ran the PA for the weekend and the batteries had no problems starting cars afterwards.
Looks like this could work for you - another shopping trolley full of car batteries!
Cheers
Hugh