Santa's float: sound for a Bristol charity tradition
Forward-firing speakers on the tractor and delay-aligned subs under the trailer, so a volunteer-run Santa's float could be heard up the street while raising money for Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.
Make the float loud enough to be heard well ahead of its arrival, with speakers for the characters and dancers leading the way and for the public as it passes.
Every year a group of volunteers club together to spread festive cheer through the streets of Bristol and raise money for the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. This was the second year we had the pleasure of donating our services.
The brief
Raising money depends on people knowing the float is in town, so it needed to be loud. We placed speakers on the front linkage of the tractor so the sound carried up the street ahead of the characters and dancers leading the way, with more speakers along the side of the float for the public as it passed.
The key challenge
Getting bass heard in front of the float had been a problem in previous years. With no space on the tractor or the trailer, the only position for subwoofers was underneath. We mounted two 18-inch subs at the rear of the trailer and two at the front, all pointing forward, and used DSP to time-delay and couple the front subs to the rear ones, extending the bass coverage out in front of the float.
The float raises more than £10,000 a year for an amazing cause.
"You can actually feel the sound, Mummy."
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