School Event: Senior Signing Day in Los Angeles (Los Angeles DJ serving Burbank, Hollywood, Brea, Universal City, Valley Village, Santa Clarita, and Glendale)

We need to celebrate students. One of the best ways to put shine on seniors is to acknowledge all those who are going to the next level. The next level can be work force, military, junior college, or university. Students got in their groups and administration announced students and their destination. Students came running through a banner so it had that sports feel to it underneath a formation of balloons. Parents were in the audience and they were excited to see their children at this function.

We did not need much for this function. We just set up two 12-inch self powered speakers hooked up to a Yamaha mixer. We had two microphones with one being a wireless and one being wired. Are two microphones over kill? No way. I like have a hard wired microphone for the fool proof way to ensure a good connection. Wireless microphones do the job but you never know with batteries running out or if the signal isn’t strong so a wired microphone is a must no matter what.

So what kind of music do you play at this function? Being that a high percentage of students are Latin, we went with some festive Latin music. Early I was playing for the parents since they were the first ones there then when the students showed up I made sure to play music that everyone knew. We never want to be too soft or too loud so volumes have to be adjusted on the mixer. Also its good to be next to the mixer to adjust each person who speaks since they speak at different levels.

  We need to set up at a field. No problem. We will have around 500 people. No problem. We need four speakers spread out in the field with power spread out also. No problem. Also we want music people can jive too. No problem.

 We had an honor roll celebration recently and I had to provide the sound. First and foremost,  I had to check the power sources to make sure they worked since it is a field. Made sure I ordered 4 50 foot extension cords and 50 foot speaker cables. Wanted to spread out the speakers to cover more ground and would not have to blast the volume so it would be too loud for those who are close to the speaker.

 I set up one wireless microphone with another on stand by with another wired microphone on backup. Parents had a full day of work and wanted to hear their child’s name loudly on the pa system.

 I made sure the playlist was as festive as can be. You need to know your audience.  The majority of the audience was latinos so we went with 90 percent latin music but I did include crossover music and some American classics. A lot of djs are afraid to play non American music because they want to be safe. But when you do play the cumbias or Mexican music people deeply appreciate it.

Outside events you have many factors to deal with but it has to be done by a professional sound guy to make sure it is done right. Contact Black and White Affair to make sure your graduation or outside event is done right.