The terrace: sound, equipment protection and night-time limits

In season the terrace often brings in more than the interior. It is also the only part of a venue where the consequences of poor planning are heard by the neighbours.

Sound behaves differently outdoors

Indoors, walls contain and reflect the sound. Outdoors there is none of that: sound disperses and falls away faster, so staff feel it is too quiet and turn the level up. That feeling is the cause of most complaints.

The answer is not a more powerful speaker but more quiet sources, mounted lower and closer to the tables. That way a guest hears the music at their own table while the neighbour across the street does not.

• Angle speakers downwards and towards the venue, never towards residential buildings.
• Several smaller sources instead of two powerful ones.
• The terrace should be a separate zone with its own control.
• Bass on a terrace rarely brings anything good; low frequencies travel furthest.

Protecting the equipment

Outdoor equipment needs an appropriate rating against water and dust. A covered terrace calls for at least IP55, an exposed one IP65. On the coast, add resistance to salt air, which destroys ordinary fixings and grilles within a few seasons.

In winter it makes sense to take in any equipment not intended for permanent exposure. The brackets should allow that without tools, otherwise it will not happen.

Night-time limits

Regulations limit environmental noise, more strictly at night. Relying on staff to turn the level down at the agreed hour is not a plan. During the rush nobody thinks of it.

A technical solution works more reliably: a schedule in the matrix amplifier that automatically lowers or switches off the terrace zone at a set time, and a limiter that never lets the highest levels be reached at all. Both are set once and work without human intervention.

The neighbours

A first conversation with the neighbours is cheaper than a first complaint. If it is known when the music stops, and that a device takes care of it rather than goodwill, most matters never start.

Where a formal noise measurement becomes necessary, it is carried out by an accredited body. Room acoustics and environmental noise are two different matters with different criteria.