Music playing equipment for cafe.

Encantador

We opened a cafe a few weeks ago. Now looking at how we can play music without having to spend a fortune.

The building was built in 1856. We have main room which has a very high ceiling (30ft).

Ideally want a portable machine which we can play CD`s and also some sort of MP3 input. Sockets for adding external wired speaker would be useful in case wireless is not possible.

Do not want to have to put wires around the room so wireless speakers would be ideal. The distance between the ideal location for the machine and the ideal location for the speakers is about 30-40 feet. The speakers can be placed near electric sockets for power.

Is bluetooth an option over that distance? Would the quality be good enough?

We have unlimited broadband and up to 17MBps, not sure whether this coulod be used to stream music and what any equipment would be needed to do this too. Probably too expensive.

So basically, one machine to play and 2-3 speakers to receive is the bare bones of what we need. Any ideas/suggestions of how this can be best achieved on a tight budget would be welcome.

Thanks

Steve

Encantador

Should have mentioned we usually have a Ipad and a 7in android tablet with us, if either of these could be used as the player in some way even better.

tonyh66

You do know you will need a licence to play music in public.

spacey2012

Yes the PRS licence is your biggest problem.

paddyrg

Assuming you play PRS and PPL licensed music, you have other issues as well. The acoustics in spaces like you describe are not always that amazing, and will often suit multiple smaller speakers than several large ones. Large ones will deafen some diners whilst others have gentle background music. Large ones will echo and reflect off of hard surfaces, so you have to compensate by phasing the signals (potentially - depends on the location and setup).

I would avoid bluetooth or any digital relay - digital relay means each speaker has to decode the digital signal before playing it, and some speakers will be faster at doing that than others - even a few fractions of a second will start to sound odd. As such, analogue is the way forwards, so perhaps several smaller wired speakers will beat a few bluetooth large ones.

closed

silence is golden, to some

matttye

Can you define 'tight budget' ?

Apple AirPlay seems like it would be good for your purposes, but it's not that cheap. AirPlay speakers are really expensive, but you can connect any set of speakers to an AirPort Express (£79 each) to play wirelessly.

AirPlay has the benefit of being able to pick which speakers you want to play to. You can turn some off, turn others on, play to all, play to only some, etc., all from your iPad.