Tip: you can listen while you read along, or close your screen and treat it as a podcast on the drive home.
Why this is the last module. The sound spec is the audio twin of the lighting plot — the design document the whole quote hangs off — and reading it is the final tool in the kit. Everything you've built across both tiers comes together here: the vocabulary from Module 2, the plot-reading discipline from Module 4, and the line-by-line scepticism from Tier 1A all converge on one document.
What this module gives you. A sound spec is the design document for a production's audio system — input list, output list, monitor configuration, speaker setup, infrastructure. Every line on the spec ties to a line on the hire quote. After this module, you can read the spec well enough to verify the quote matches the design, count what's needed against what's quoted, and price the system against the 2026 rate card.
The final BS-detector tool. The contractor who can't justify their spec line against the design is the contractor over-billing. The contractor who can justify every line is the one to work with for the next five years.
Where a lighting plot is a drawing, a sound spec is usually a set of lists — but it works the same way: a small number of repeating elements that, once you know them, turn an opaque document into something you can audit. Sometimes the contractor hands you a proper spec (the good sign); sometimes you have to reverse-engineer it from the quote. Either way you're looking for the same five things.
Every microphone, instrument input, and signal source that needs to reach the console. Listed by channel number with: source name (e.g., "Vocal 1", "Kick drum", "Acoustic guitar DI"), mic/DI type (e.g., "DPA 4061", "Shure SM57", "Radial JDI"), stand/position (e.g., "FOH-stand SR", "Pit drum kit"), notes.
For a school musical with 14-piece band + 8-lead radio mics, expect 26-34 input lines. Less means orchestra is sub-mixed; more means individual brass section mics or backing-vocal pickups.
Every speaker or destination the console feeds. Three categories:
For a school musical, expect: FOH L+R (2) + 1-2 subs + 2-4 monitors = 6-10 output lines. More than 12 outputs = over-spec'd unless it's a recording/streaming production.
What speakers, where they go, and how they're powered. Common school configs:
Stage box, snake/multicore, cabling, console, comms, power distro. The boring-but-essential bits.
If the spec is rigorous, it states the labour assumptions: how many engineers + ops, what they do, how many hours. Most specs assume 1 engineer setup + 1 op show-run, which is correct for most school productions.
Like the plot, you read a spec for the handful of things that decide cost, not front to back. Four checks, the same every time: do the inputs match the band and cast, do the outputs match a school-scale show, is the speaker class right for the room, and is the labour split by phase. Anything that fails one of these is your push-back.
As with lighting, the rate card turns your spec counts into an expected total — the anchor you hold the quote against. The two lines that move the number most are the console and the PA, so those are the rows to know cold; the labour rows let you price the engineer-versus-op split you scoped in Module 2.
| Item | Per day (mid-market) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Console: Behringer X32 (Producer / Compact / Wing) | A$120-220 | Plenty of capability for school work |
| Console: Allen & Heath SQ-5 / SQ-6 / Avantis | A$220-380 | Mid-tier; great for school + community |
| Console: Yamaha QL1 / QL5 | A$280-520 | QL5 is more channels; QL1 is plenty |
| Console: Yamaha CL / DiGiCo / dLive flagship | A$700-1,500 | Touring class; over-spec for schools |
| FOH Mains (QSC K12.2 / EV ETX-15P / similar) | A$80-130 | Per box; 2 boxes for a school theatre |
| Subs (QSC KS118 / EV ETX-18SP) | A$120-180 | Per box; 1-2 subs typical |
| L-Acoustics ARCS / Kara point-source | A$220-380 | Higher-end point-source; nice for music-heavy shows |
| L-Acoustics K2 / dLive line array (touring) | A$650-1,200 | Per box; usually 4-12 box arrays; OVER-SPEC for schools |
| Wireless mic system (Shure / Sennheiser EW-D / DPA + receivers) | A$140-220 | Per channel; includes body pack + mic + receiver |
| Wireless headset (DPA 4066, Sennheiser 152, Countryman E6i) | A$150-300 | Per show; consumable due to sweat damage |
| Monitor wedge (RCF NX 12, QSC K10.2) | A$70-120 | Per wedge; 2-4 for a school musical |
| Stage box / digital snake (e.g., Yamaha Rio, A&H DX168) | A$150-280 | Includes 1 CAT cable run to FOH |
| Multicore cable (analog, 100m+) | A$120-220 | If digital snake not used |
| System engineer | A$140-185/hr | For setup + tuning + soundcheck |
| Sound op | A$80-120/hr | For show-run |
| RF coordination (8+ wireless mics) | A$350-550 fixed | One-time; ACMA scan + frequency plan |
14-piece band + 8 lead vocals (radio mic) + 4 backing vocals (SM58 wired). 280-seat school theatre. 5-show season + 3 tech days + setup + strike = 9-day production cycle.
Expected spec + pricing:
Total at mid-market with school-grade choices: A$32,375 (with EW-D radio) or A$29,495 (with SLX-D economy).
If a quote significantly exceeds these numbers, you have ammunition. The single most-effective question: "Your quote is A$48k for a system that prices at A$30-32k on the rate card. Where's the extra A$15-18k coming from?" If the answer involves L-Acoustics K2 or a CL5 console, refer back to Module 1B-2 — those are over-spec for a 280-seat school venue.
Of everything on the spec, the radio mics and headsets are where a school's money is most easily wasted — not by over-paying the hire company, but by buying the wrong kit and watching kids destroy it. Two rules save you most of the grief.
1. Don't put kids in expensive headsets. A spec might call for DPA 4066/4088 headworn mics — beautiful, broadcast-grade, and around A$300+ each. In a school show they will get sweated into, sat on, stretched and snapped, and you'll be replacing them. A robust school-grade headset (JAG-class and similar) sounds perfectly good from a 280-seat house and survives a season of teenagers. Save the DPAs for the professionals; spec the rugged ones for your cast.
2. Cast never take their own mics on or off. Make it an iron rule: a mic is fitted and removed only by the crew/dresser, never by the performer. Kids pulling their own packs is the number-one cause of broken capsules, lost transmitters, mis-set gain and RF chaos mid-show. One trained person at the mic station, a sign-out sheet, and the failure rate drops to near zero.
The fiddly consumables that make radio mics actually work — clips, pins, mic tape, sweat-proof pack covers — are exactly the things teachers can't find and can't buy on a school card. The ESC Store packages them as a ready-made Mic-Up Kit (everything you need to rig a cast for a season) alongside the rest of the show consumables — gaffer, spike tape, glow tape, batteries — and bills via invoice with a PO field, the way schools actually purchase. One order, in the system you already use, instead of a scavenger hunt across five suppliers.
The rate card flags a quote priced above the design; this is where you catch the design itself being oversized for a school room. Each pattern below is something you can see on the spec before pricing, paired with the one question that opens the conversation about scaling it back.
| Pattern in the spec | Why over-spec | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Line array on a 280-seat venue | Touring kit; over-coverage; expensive | "Could a 2-box point-source + 2 subs deliver the same coverage?" |
| CL5 / dLive flagship console for a school musical | Pro-touring desk; massive over-spec on channel count | "What console is appropriate for 32 inputs and 8 outputs? QL1 / SQ-6 / X32 all do this." |
| 50+ inputs for a 14-piece + 8 leads | Either drums are over-mic'd (each cymbal individually) or backing-vocal mics are added unnecessarily | "Could we sub-mix the drum kit to 4 channels instead of 8?" |
| IEMs for the whole cast (16+ IEM packs) | Tour-grade; school cast rarely needs IEMs | "Could we use 2-4 wedges instead of IEMs for the band + downstage?" |
| Outboard processing rack (compressors, gates, EQ) | The desk's onboard processing is sufficient for school work | "Could we drop the outboard rack and use desk-onboard processing?" |
| Multiple radio-mic systems mixed (Shure + Sennheiser + DPA) | RF coordination complexity; cost loaded | "Could we standardise on one wireless system for the radio mics?" |
You won't always have the rate card open in a meeting, so carry the short version in your head. Four questions, asked silently as the contractor talks, that tell you whether the spec is scaled to your room or to a touring stage. After reading any sound spec + quote, run this:
If any of these answers is "over-spec'd", that's your push-back. Single sentence: "the spec is over-engineered for our room and budget — can you re-spec to the right scale and re-quote?" Reputable contractors will re-quote. The ones who refuse are signalling they only do touring-class work and aren't actually the right vendor for a school.
That's the last tool. Step back and look at what you've assembled across both tiers: a framework for running the production, and a BS-detector for every department that sends you a quote. Each module added one piece, and they're designed to work together — vocabulary to get into the conversation, design-reading to check the spec, rate cards to price it, and the line-by-line discipline to hold the number.
Applied to a single Year-12 musical, this toolkit conservatively saves A$15,000-A$30,000 in over-spec'd hire + over-billed labour. The Tier 2 School License costs A$1,290/yr. ROI is irrefutable.
This is where the input list actually comes from. EasyOrchestra lets you lay out the pit — every player, every chair — and read the orchestration: how many musicians, on what instruments, in what space. That layout is your input list. Once you can see it, the chain that drives the whole sound budget falls out of it:
Around that: EasyScheduler tracks the engineer-vs-op hours, and EasyRisk holds the sound SWMS (cabling trip hazards, hearing-protection thresholds). The orchestra layout is where the sound spec begins.
Open EasyOrchestra · Pit layout EasyScheduler · Labour split
Open the annotated sample sound spec in the resource pack. Run the 4-step spec-read. Identify any over-spec patterns. Save your annotated spec to portfolio.
Apply the 2026 rate card to the same sample spec. Build the expected line-by-line pricing. Compare to the quote in the resource pack. Identify the gap. Draft the push-back email.
These are for your own reflection — not graded. Your answers save automatically to this browser.
1. A sound spec lists 52 inputs for a 14-piece band + 8 lead vocals. Is this proportionate? What's your first question?
2. The spec calls for an L-Acoustics K2 line array (6 boxes) for a 280-seat school theatre. Is this appropriate? What do you propose instead?
3. Using the 2026 rate card, what's the expected 9-day rental cost for: 2 × QSC K12.2 + 2 × KS118 subs + Yamaha QL1 console + 3 × monitor wedges?
4. A quote charges "System engineer × 9 days × 8 hrs/day". What's wrong, and what do you propose?
5. How does the orchestration scope (the size of the band) drive the input list, the console class, and ultimately the sound budget?
6. Why should cast never fit or remove their own radio mics, and what headset choice makes sense for a school cast?
Everything you need to read, build and reconcile a sound spec. Open each in a new tab, print or save as PDF.
| Resource | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Annotated Sample Sound Spec | A real anonymised school-musical spec with the 4-step read applied. |
| 2026 AU Sound Hire-Rate Card | Per-day rates to price a spec — updated annually. |
| Sound-Spec Symbol Key | Block-diagram icons and annotations decoded. |
| Input-List Template | Channel / source / mic / position structure — worked example + blank. |
| Output-List Template | FOH / monitor / matrix structure. |
| Monitor-Mix Template | Who hears what on stage — lead vocal / drum / MD mixes. |
| RF Frequency-Coordination Worksheet | AU 2026 legal bands + coordinated frequencies + walk-test. |
| Spec-Reading Checklist | Fifteen questions to ask every spec. |
| Spec-to-Quote Reconciliation | Drop in spec counts, compare to the quote, see the deltas. |
| Sound-Spec BS-Detector | Six common over-spec patterns and the push-back question for each. |
This module has no graded quiz — completion is marked when you tell us you've worked through the material.