Policies & Procedures

Employees of Assistance Audio are held to the highest standard. No drugs. No drinking on the job, no smoking on the job site, no abusive, profane or disparaging language. We know the difference between a community event and a rock show. We discuss and implement different approaches for different musical styles. We are not a cookie cutter provider. We know not to make a bluegrass band sound like a rock band.
We strive to keep our workplace safe.
Assistance Audio does not discriminate based on gender, race, or religion. We are nice.

System Packaging

System packaging is very important at Assistance Audio. We know that it takes more than owning a sound board and speakers to be a sound company. We concentrate on Cabling, Connectors, Cases, Covers, Labeling/Color Coding, and Maintenance.

• One of the most overlooked aspects of a sound system is cabling. Proper planning and effort are required to get the job done right. Assistance Audio uses only quality Mogami cabling for all mic cords, snakes, interconnect cables, and speaker cables. We have installed many multi-pin connectors so that every set up goes quickly and smoothly. We package our systems to be modular and interchangeable.

• In order to maintain a profit, most case companies have to turn out product quickly, compromising quality. Assistance Audio build our own cases in order to ensure proper fit, quality construction and even details like truck pack. We go to such lengths as to ensure that all monitor cases fit each other, and in either direction. The end result is quick set ups, tear downs, truck loading, and lower overhead in cases; all benefits that trickle down to our customers.
  Every speaker implemented since 1997 has either a case or cover, improving the overall look of the speaker system and extending its life.

• All cords, cables, and mic stands are either labeled or color coded. This ensures that any wayward cables or stands will be returned to their proper set. Also every mic cord is color coded for length, making for speedier, tidier set ups. All looms or interior cables are color coded for fast set up and easy trouble shooting.

• Most of the sound boards in the small and medium systems have been around for a while. They sound much better than a current board in their price point and they have paid for themselves quite some time ago. This translates to better sound quality for less money. Vintage gear requires some additional "TLC" to keep it in top condition. We label anything that acts up in the field and fix it before sending it back out. We perform regular maintenance and touch ups on all of our gear.

• The end result of our system packaging and maintenance is a sound system that is reliable, and sets up quickly and correctly every time. It also ensures that you get the most for your money.

Our smallest systems are speakers on sticks. Using the JBL Eon (right) or the Coda Audio AP-8 (left), no mixer is needed. One Microphone can plug directly into either speaker. Typically, these systems would be combined with an eight channel board. We also use these speakers as front fills, delays, cues, and monitors in larger systems.

Our most popular system is the "Brown Bag System", so named as it was designed specifically for Salt Lake City's Brown Bag Concert Series. It is packaged in a single rack with a board, digital FX, EQ's, crossovers, and amps.
This system does over 100 events per year.
It is ideal for community events or rock and roll in small rooms. A subwoofer can be added for extra low frequency extension.
The top box is a 1.4" BMS on a DDS horn, the lows are dual 15". The tops are suspended from poles of our own design, providing improved sight lines, enough clearance to get sound over the crowd without tall speaker stacks, and improved stability over speaker stands. The Brown Bag System starts at $360, which includes system delivery, setup and operation. An upgraded Brown bag system is also available.

The medium size systems are our most varied, and can easily be adapted for size, type and venue of any show that falls between our small system and our large system.  They are usually packaged around our Roland digital m-400 mixing console.  The digital allows us to be very versatile with minimal equipment. The board can function 16-40 channels and 10 sends depending on what is required by the show.  We also have 10 analog boards that can be used instead of the Roland digital or can be used as a monitor split. Along with the built in digital packs we have four different rack mounted FX/dynamics packages. Speakers can be any shown on this site or chosen from our older systems.

Our large systems usually center around one of two VCA consoles pictured above, the Midas XL200 (56ch) or the Allen & Heath ML5000 (32+4ch), with a Soundcraft 500M (48chx12mixes) monitor split. These are typically packaged with one of two flyable speaker systems. The Sound Physics Labs td-1, or our own speaker system, the R-II. Both are single point source speakers, using ATM flyware for safe, efficient predictable flying. Both are controlled with BSS digital speaker controllers and powered with Crown MA series power amps. The td-1 has more vertical coverage, good for amphitheaters, while the R-II is more efficient and has a longer throw. All monitors are biamped with TDM 1/3 octave EQ's and crossovers, and powered with Crown MA series amps. And of course they have BMS drivers. The main FX rack includes eight channels of 10 series dbx compression, four channels of KT gates, four channels of BSS compression/de-essing, Lexicon PCM-80, Yamaha SPX-990, and Digitech TSR24 (dual engine) digital FX.

Assistance Audio can also supply lights. We have a small system that is great for washing smaller stages, usually in static mode. Pictures on right are of a show lit by our system. For more dynamic, larger shows we have a sister company with whom we subcontract.