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Power Sequencing

KingRazor

KingRazor

Jun 4, 2010
6,747
415
37
Beaverton, Oregon USA
#1
I am looking at adding some power sequencing to my church's audio system.

I was looking at the Furman PS8R II, but the problem with that is the position of the outlets. We have a lot of wall warts in our system, and each one would take up two outlets. This means I'd have to get twice as many power sequencers as I'd need if I didn't have wall warts.

Then I found this: Invalid Link Removed

It appears to have 3 wall-wart spaced outlets. With this I would only need to buy two sequencers for the whole system instead of four.

My only concern is that I know Furman has a great reputation and I don't know anything about ART. Has anyone here used any of their products?

Also, are there any cheaper alternatives to what I'm looking at right now?
 
#3
I know that wall wart power strips exist. I have a couple at my studio.
I am not at my studio.
However, they have outlets spaced for those meddling wall wart transformers, and they're laid out perpendicular to the strip...
 
#9
Here is what we pro contractors do on our "budget" jobs when the client can't afford Surgex gear. We use a single gang shelf or two to mount wall wart friendly power strips onto, velcro is fine for this idea so you can easily get to them when needed.

So a shelf will run you something like $30 or so. Middle Atlantic U-1, Gator makes one that is a couple bucks cheaper that we use, but I can't recall the model #. Since the PS-8R has a duplex outlet per sequence step, you can easily plug in all your console, your outboard gear (EQ's, DSP's, CD-PB or CD-Rec, etc) and any wireless all into Delay 1. Then if amps are located in the same area, split your amps up between Delay 2 and Delay 3. If you have more than four amps, you should add a Furman PS-REL and a MP-15 module. You can use this plugged into one of your Delay steps on the PS8 and plug the MP-15's power into a different circuit if needed. It will still power on with the sequencer according to which Delay step you have plugged it into. We do this for all kinds of remote powering. You can also make use of a cheap Furman M-8X (no lights needed) for around $50 or so if you don't want to use the wall wart friendly power strips from Home Depot.

What is most important in regards to sequencing is to make the amps come on last and the head end first. It primarily prevents the old "pop" of voltage surge to the speaker rigs. But if you guys have a pro DSP by Symetrix or BSS or Biamp or I suppose we can still count Peavey' Media Matrix, you should have strong enough hard limiters on any speaker output to prevent any serious damage to a system these days.

But you are on the right track. Feel free to PM if you have any questions on it. Happy to help.

Sorry the ART question....I'd spend my money on Furman and avoid the ART/Samson products. Also their is a cheap Juice Goose sequencer something like a CQ-1500, I forget that we blew up 8 in the first month...yeah bad batch, just why did they keep sending them to us... nice people at Juice Goose, I had owned some of their stuff years ago but it was pretty high end power conditioning and regulating. But when it comes to power management, Furman is really the way to go if you can't afford the Surgex. BTW, A Surgex SEQ would be great for you, handles building power issues very well, better than others will set you back about $850-900. But you will never worry about your power again. And power is never something to skimp on. I've seen cheap power maker's stuff completely toast a rack before.
 
#10
We have all of our equipment split up into two racks, one on either side of the stage. Right now one of them has 8 microphone receivers, a headphone amp and a digital snake. The other one has one mic receiver, 3 power amps and a digital snake. I plan on rearranging it so we have one power amp in each rack (I want to relocate one of the amps closer to its source). And 4-5 mic receivers in each rack.

So if I understand correctly, there won't be an issue with me putting a sequencer in each rack, then putting a power strip in each rack for the wall warts, and plugging the power strips into the sequencers?
 
#12
KingRazor said:
We have all of our equipment split up into two racks, one on either side of the stage. Right now one of them has 8 microphone receivers, a headphone amp and a digital snake. The other one has one mic receiver, 3 power amps and a digital snake. I plan on rearranging it so we have one power amp in each rack (I want to relocate one of the amps closer to its source). And 4-5 mic receivers in each rack.

So if I understand correctly, there won't be an issue with me putting a sequencer in each rack, then putting a power strip in each rack for the wall warts, and plugging the power strips into the sequencers?
Click to expand...

You can do this but you will need to also pick up a Furman MP-15, as mentioned above. This looks like a fancy single gang electrical box with a duplex receptacle on it. You will also need a Furman PS-REL, this looks like a little box with a power cord. You will also see on both boxes a set of screw terminals. You will need a shielded pair running between each rack to tie these two units together. There are just three wires to hook up on each end, they look identical on each end, you can't really screw this up.

On the amp rack side, put the MP-15 in place using nice thick Velcro, and just stick it on the side wall on your amp rack. Plug the amp rack's Furman Sequencer's power cord into the power outlet on the MP-15. Install the PS-REL in the outboard rack and plug the PS-REL's power cord into one of the DELAY 3 receptacles. You can now trigger both racks from the outboard Furman Sequencer's power switch. By adjusting the sequence delay times to vary from each other, you should be able to achieve your goal. I've done just this in over 500 churches. It's very common with pro installers. It should work great for you, plus it minimizes explaining to lay peeps how the thing turns on.

There are complete explanations for all in the Furman user guides. And as offered, feel free to ask if there is any part of it you don't get.
 
#13
Keithwah said:
You can do this but you will need to also pick up a Furman MP-15, as mentioned above. This looks like a fancy single gang electrical box with a duplex receptacle on it. You will also need a Furman PS-REL, this looks like a little box with a power cord. You will also see on both boxes a set of screw terminals. You will need a shielded pair running between each rack to tie these two units together. There are just three wires to hook up on each end, they look identical on each end, you can't really screw this up.

On the amp rack side, put the MP-15 in place using nice thick Velcro, and just stick it on the side wall on your amp rack. Plug the amp rack's Furman Sequencer's power cord into the power outlet on the MP-15. Install the PS-REL in the outboard rack and plug the PS-REL's power cord into one of the DELAY 3 receptacles. You can now trigger both racks from the outboard Furman Sequencer's power switch. By adjusting the sequence delay times to vary from each other, you should be able to achieve your goal. I've done just this in over 500 churches. It's very common with pro installers. It should work great for you, plus it minimizes explaining to lay peeps how the thing turns on.

There are complete explanations for all in the Furman user guides. And as offered, feel free to ask if there is any part of it you don't get.
Click to expand...

Oh right I don't think I mentioned, the racks are about 30 feet apart from each other.
 
#14
KingRazor said:
Oh right I don't think I mentioned, the racks are about 30 feet apart from each other.
Click to expand...

No problem, you could easily use a cat5 Cale for this as well. Just need to run it from one rack to the other. It can't travel over the digital snakes, has to be a point to point termination. If you guys are uncomfortable running your own cables, look for a local AV firm to hire this work out. You guys surely have an electrician in your congregation. Who can run wire and even hook this up. Every church has at least one sparky. We always leave spares on all our wire runs for this purpose.
 
#15
Heh, I was just doing the math and I don't know how we haven't blown a circuit by now.

We have three power amps and two powered speakers on one 15 amp circuit. If you take the typical amperage of each of the power amps and powered speakers and add it up it's over 20 amps. Yet despite running all of them at once we've never blown or tripped anything.

Edit: Which means we must not be running our amps very hard at all.
 
#16
I just use simple "pigtails", single or double. Like this ...

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12PS1.jpg
 
#17
^^^^ Exactly. That's the best use of the power sequencer's outlets with wall warts. You can also get those in Y form, to plug two wall warts into each outlet of the sequencer.

Also, the only pieces that actually need sequencing are the power amps. They need to be turned on last, and turned off first. Everything else does not have any problem with being powered on/off at the same time. So the wall warts don't even need to be part of the sequencing.
 
#18
True, but I also wanted to cut down on the number of switches one needs to flip in order to turn on the entire system (right now you need to flip 8 separate switches to turn on everything).

The digital snakes should be sequenced because they need to turn on before anything else. After that, the powered sub needs to be turned on before the powered tops, because the tops receive their signal from the sub. The amps can be turned on anytime after the snakes are on.
 
#19
These are my solution to wall-warts. Fortunately, I have this retail store nearby. These are not high capacity, but I only use them to solve the wall-wart problem, and they're cheap ($1.69 each, at the moment)!

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 

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