Indiana 50501 Audio Analysis
This document analyzes our audio issues.
Overview

Indiana 50501 is a state level grass roots political organization that runs large scale rallies and protests.
Here is our growth so far:

  • 2/5/25 - 200 people
  • 2/17/25 - 300 People
  • 3/4/25 - 450 actually counted, maybe 800 attending
  • 3/8/25 - We counted 1376 marching and not everyone marched. We don't know the total number

We hold outdoor events without AC power and that is a key constraint.
What We Want But Don't Know If It Exists

It is pretty clear that our numbers will continue to grow. What we really want is a wireless networked speaker system where we can expand by adding additional speakers as we grow. Ideal it would have these features:

  • Stand mounted speakers with rechargeable batteries
  • Hand held wireless mic (Mic can be wired; this isn't a big deal)
  • Ability to add additional stand mounted units just by buying them and joining them into the network
  • Speaker stands need to be accepting of sand bags to avoid the "Let's kill the MC by falling on him" scenario
  • The main speaker needs to accept normal inputs from a musician or band
  • The main speaker ideally can accept bluetooth input from a phone for playing a warm up playlist

The rechargeable requirement isn't hard and fast. We can use speakers which can run on rechargeable USB style powerbanks but we need to allow for at least a 4 hour long runtime. RIght now we have a single Schneider 330
What We Currently Have

We currently have two audio systems:

  1. A Pyle 880 blue tooth speaker system with wireless mic. Here's the Amazon url: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D8BSSGGR
  2. An EverCore? rechargeable speaker system. This is a musician grade system and was, sadly, a bit disappointing. But that may have been us as it was our first time using it.
    Note: I don’t have the unit in front of me and I may be spacing on the name.
  3. A wired Shure Mic

Note: Indiana 50501 is standing up branches across the state. If we aren't able to use an audio system then it will get handed off to a smaller branch. We don't anticipate wasting anything.
Fixing Our Audio Problems

We are subject to several constraints:

  • No audio cables
  • No AC power

It feels to me that our desired solution must exist but none of us are from the audio space. We did get our EverCore system from Guitar center and that feels like a valid vendor but it was disappointing (returning it is still a option perhaps).
A bunch of research clearly needs to be done to see if what we want even exists.

Feedback from Felecia

Document 2 - After talking with my techie partner, bluetooth speakers might be the way to go and using a large power station like jackery makes might be a good route to go since they can run AC. I can also reach out to more experienced people on Sunday since Daniel doesn't consider his knowledge expansive. Alternately, as a backup would it be smart to use youtube's live stream option so people can watch/listen on their phones if it's too quiet? This also enables people to use closed caption