A brief excursion into the advantages and disadvantages of both systems

Author: Georg Merkert

100 V speaker systems have been around for a long time. To call them ‘outdated‘ would be too short-sighted and not really correct.

If we look at an oil and gas industrial plant, for example, we have a wide variety of areas. An adapted, safe and standard-compliant sound system is required here.

Let’s take a brief look at the requirements and challenges that need to be met for this type of sound system:

• Potentially explosive areas > Ex-approved speakers
• Very loud areas > speakers with high sound pressure and corresponding output
• Office environments > many small speakers with low output and individually adjustable volume
• Workshops, storage areas > weatherproof speakers, high volume levels
• Spacious areas > long cable runs
• Remote areas > a few speakers
• Monitoring the cable route and impedances > high integrity requirements
• Cabling as a ring structure > high reliability
• Standard speakers, e.g. EN54-24 > assured audio and long-term quality

100 V advantages

• The range of 100 V speaker types available is large and varied to meet all the above requirements.
• A 100 V speaker cabling system can supply practically all areas with the same cable.
• Long cable runs, e.g. 1 km and more, can be realized with 100 V cabling.
• The 100 V cabling can be implemented with inexpensive cables.
• A typical industrial 300 watt PA/GA amplifier can supply 50 6 watt speakers (at 80% load this would still be 40 speakers).
• MTBF times of a standard 100 V industrial speaker are several 100,000 hours.

100 V disadvantages

• Volume settings are difficult to implement:
  • Amplifier only (many speakers)
  • Line only (many speakers)
  • Volume control (complex installation, poor accessibility)
    
• Small, self-sufficient sound zones with few speakers
  • An entire amplifier channel may have to be added
  • Cabling is complex and therefore possibly expensive

IP speakers

IP speakers have established themselves on the market in a relatively short space of time. This also applies to the industrial PA/GA system environment.
Basically, an IP speaker is an active speaker with a network connection (LAN/WLAN). There are differences in terms of the protocol that the speaker ‘speaks’ and the power supply.
This turns such a sound system from a centrally controlled and supplied system into a decentralized one.

The challenges here are:

• Power supply, whether PoE (Power over Ethernet) or external
• Dedicated cable: Network switch à (Injector) à Speakers

These conclusions result in the corresponding:

IP speaker advantages

• Any, even small-scale sound zones and individual (volume) settings
  • Individual access to the speakers means that, for example, volume settings and other individual settings can be easily made.
• Can be integrated into existing network infrastructure, making it more cost-effective for small systems.
• Additional hardware functions such as inputs and outputs or microphones are more easily possible on the speaker.

IP speaker disadvantages

• May be expensive and complex for large systems with many speakers, e.g. 50 6-watt IP speakers require at least 750 watts of PoE power and 50 Ethernet cables to the individual speakers.
• At best, an Ethernet cable can reach a length of 100 meters.
• No standard-compliant sound reinforcement possible yet, e.g. in accordance with EN54-24.
• Single point of failure, as only 1 network port is available in the end device.
• MTBF times significantly reduced compared to pure speakers, as active electronics are also used.
• Synchronization between the IP speakers and the classic PA/GA speakers is practically non-existent or difficult to achieve.