Here’s a bit of education if having a raging dancefloor is important to you:
– Noise restrictions are due to residents making complaints to council about sound from past weddings.
– Proper sound insulation or ceiling mounted speakers are really expensive and a lot of venues dont want to pay
– The restriction is put against their Liquor License, so they can lose their business if they get too many complaints. Email me if you want the links to figure out if a venue has current noise restrictions
– The “traffic light” systems that some venues have work this way:
The old systems actually cut all the power to the DJ, so it actually kills the power for about 20 seconds and then reboots everything. Peak volume SHOULD be when everyone is on the dancefloor and at the peak of the night. Having the music go off during a raging dancefloor can absolutely kill the mood. A lot of the newer “traffic light” systems also keep the music on but just compress it to keep it the same volume, which basically means that the higher the volume goes to the limit the worse the music will sound.
– Check the dB levels if the venue has restrictions. Some venues will tell you that 70dB is fine for DJ music. We usually run at about 70 for canapes up to 100-110dB for dancing and our speakers can put out up to 130dB.
Your TV at home is usually at about 70dB when youre watching a movie. Here’s a chart to give you a feel for how loud things are relatively. (see chart)
– There are ways to lower the volume passively at the boundary of the property if you have your heart set on a venue with restrictions.
– A good way to check if the venue has restrictions is to ask if your DJ can bring their own sound system in, if they MUST use the venue’s system then 99% of the time that means that they have restrictions