Sound for functions: mics, music and the PA
Almost every "the microphone doesn't work" call we take on a Friday night is a flat battery, a mute switch, or the wrong mic for the room. Five minutes of checking in the afternoon prevents nearly all of them — and this is the five minutes.
On this page
On this page
Venue audio has one unforgiving quality: it fails in front of an audience. A speech that can't be heard at a wake, a presentation night where the mic cuts out, a band that can't get sound — those are the moments members remember. And nearly all of them are preventable with a check done hours earlier, when there's still time to do something about it.
If you only read one thing
- Check the mic in the afternoon, in the actual room. Not in the office, not five minutes before.
- Fresh batteries for every function. Not "they were fine last week". Batteries are cheaper than a ruined speech.
- Check the mute switch first. It is the answer more often than everything else combined.
- Know which zone controls which room before you need to know it.
- Don't start turning things up. If it's not working, more volume gives you feedback, not sound.
01 — PreventionThe afternoon sound check
Five minutes, on the day, in the room the function is in. If a function matters, this is not optional.
Put fresh batteries in the wireless mics
Every time, for anything that matters. Note which mics take which batteries and keep a stock of both. A rechargeable mic goes on its charging base overnight, not an hour before.
Turn the mic on and check the mute switch
Most handhelds and lapel packs have a mute or on/off that's easy to knock. Look at the indicator light — if the mic looks dead, this is where to start.
Speak into it, at normal volume, in the room
Say something with real words rather than tapping it. "Testing, one two three, can everyone hear me at the back" tells you about clarity as well as level. Walk to the far corner while you talk.
Check it's coming out of the right speakers
The room the function is in — not the bar, and not the whole venue. If the speech is going to be heard in the bistro during service, that's a zone problem to sort now, not later.
Walk the room with the mic live
Find the spots where it squeals before your guest speaker does. Usually directly in front of a speaker. Note them and keep the lectern away from them.
Test the second mic too
If there are two, test both. The one you don't test is the one that fails, and a spare that doesn't work isn't a spare.
Leave it set up and switched off
Don't dismantle it after testing. Put the mic somewhere known, switched off, with the batteries in — and tell whoever's on that night where it is and that it's tested.
A mic that doesn't work at 2pm is a problem we can often solve remotely or get to before the function. The same mic at 7pm is a problem nobody can solve. Ring us as soon as a check fails — even for something small — rather than hoping it comes good.
02 — MicrophonesMicrophone discipline
Wireless mics are the most-lost, most-flat, most-mishandled equipment in any venue. Some habits worth enforcing:
- One home, and everyone knows where it is. A labelled drawer or a charging base in a known spot. Mics that live "wherever they were last used" get lost, and a missing dedicated function mic is a call we take more often than you'd think.
- Label them to match the system. If the mixer says Mic 1 and Mic 2, the mics should say Mic 1 and Mic 2. Otherwise "Mic 2 isn't working" means nothing to whoever's helping you.
- Batteries out if it's going away for weeks. Batteries left in a drawer for a season can leak and destroy the mic.
- Hold it properly and close. A hand's width from the mouth, pointed at it, and not cupped over the top — cupping the head is what causes most of the awful sound at presentations. Show your speaker before they start.
- Lapel mics go on the outside of clothing, a hand's width below the chin, clear of anything that rubs — lanyards, badges, zips, open jackets.
- Don't lend them out. Mics that leave the building don't come back, or come back broken.
- Tell us when one starts misbehaving. Static, crackle, cutting out at distance, or working only in part of the room — that's a real fault developing, not something to work around for six months.
When a mic sounds wrong
| What you hear | Nearly always |
|---|---|
| Nothing at all | Off, muted, flat battery, or the channel is down on the mixer. In that order. |
| Cuts in and out as they walk | Too far from the receiver, or something blocking it. Also a classic sign of a battery on its way out. |
| Static or crackle | Battery, or interference. Note which mic and tell us — a mic that crackles reliably has a fault. |
| Muffled or boomy | Being cupped, held too close, or a lapel mic under clothing. |
| Very quiet even up close | Level set low on the mixer, or the wrong channel is up. Don't turn everything up to compensate. |
| Squealing | Feedback — see below. Move, don't amplify. |
| Comes out in the wrong room | Zone routing. Something to sort in the afternoon. |
03 — ZonesWhich control does what
Most venues have their audio split into zones — bar, bistro, function room, deck, gaming area, toilets, outdoor. Each can have different volume and often different sources. This is where most confusion lives.
- Get a written map of your zones. Which control affects which room, in plain language, printed and kept where the controls are. If you don't have one, ask us — it's a small job and it saves endless confusion.
- Know what a function needs before the day. Should the speech be heard in the function room only? Should music continue in the bar? Should the deck be separate? Decide it in advance and it can be set up once.
- Ask us for presets. If your system supports it, common setups can be saved as a one-touch preset — "function room speech", "whole venue background", "sports on the big screen". Far better than staff learning a mixer.
- Echo between zones is a real fault, not a quirk. If you can hear the same audio slightly out of step from two areas, that's fixable by timing the zones properly. Report it rather than living with it.
- Outdoor zones need care after hours. Volume that's fine at 3pm can be a neighbour complaint at 9pm, and your licence may have conditions about it. Worth setting a limit and knowing who's allowed to change it.
04 — MusicBackground music
- Use a proper commercial music service. Playing a personal streaming account through a venue's PA generally isn't permitted under those services' terms, and public performance of music in a venue has its own licensing requirements in Australia. If you're not sure what your club holds, that's a question for your GM — and worth answering before someone asks it for you.
- Nobody's phone as the source. It rings, it runs out of battery, it leaves at the end of the shift, and it plays a notification through the whole venue at exactly the wrong moment.
- Match the room and the hour. Lunch service, Friday night and a Sunday session want different music and different volume. Ask us to set schedules if you'd rather not think about it.
- Volume creep is real. Staff nudge it up over a shift and nobody nudges it back, so by 9pm members are shouting. Setting a sensible maximum solves it permanently.
- Duck the music for announcements rather than shouting over it. Most systems can drop background music automatically when a mic or the paging system is used — if yours doesn't, ask us.
- Remember the screens. If TVs have their own sound and the PA is playing something else, the room becomes a mess. Decide which wins in each zone.
05 — FeedbackThat squeal, and how to stop it
Feedback is a microphone hearing itself through a speaker. Understanding that one sentence tells you the fix, and it isn't the volume knob.
Do
- Move the mic away from the speakers
- Point the mic away from speakers
- Get the speaker closer to the mic and speak up
- Move the lectern out of the hot spot
- Turn it down a touch, then reposition
- Mute a mic that isn't being used
Don't
- Turn it up to be heard over the squeal
- Cup your hand over the mic head
- Walk in front of the speakers holding a live mic
- Leave three mics open when one is in use
- Start adjusting the mixer's tone controls
- Tap the mic to test it
If it feeds back in the same spot every time, that's a placement problem worth fixing properly rather than working around at every function. Tell us where it happens and what's in that corner — usually it's a speaker aimed at where the speaker stands, and moving one of them is a permanent fix.
06 — LimitsWhat not to touch
Venue audio systems are configured once, carefully, so that zones are balanced, timed and limited correctly. A well-meaning adjustment to a rack-mounted mixer or processor at 8pm can put the whole venue out — and it's very hard to put back without knowing what it was.
What staff should have is a simple control: a wall panel, a tablet app, or a handful of clearly labelled volume controls. If your team currently has to open a rack to run a function, tell us — that's a setup problem and it's fixable.
Fine for staff
- Volume on the labelled zone controls
- Mic on/off, mute, batteries
- Selecting a saved preset
- Changing music source on the app or panel
- Muting a zone
Leave to us
- Anything inside the audio rack
- Mixer channel settings, tone, effects
- Unplugging or re-routing cables
- Re-pairing wireless receivers
- Moving speakers or amplifiers
- Anything with a "do not adjust" label
07 — Live actsBands and outside performers
- Agree what they bring and what you provide in writing when you book them. Most bands bring their own system; some expect to plug into yours, which is a very different conversation.
- Never let a performer patch into the venue system unsupervised. Cables get borrowed, settings get changed, and on Monday nothing works. If they need a connection, ask us to put a proper input point in — then it's a plug, not a puzzle.
- Set volume expectations up front, especially near residents or if your licence has conditions. Easier as a booking condition than an argument at 9:30pm.
- Agree who kills the background music and when. And who turns it back on at the end of the set — quiet rooms empty fast.
- Check the system after they've packed up, before you lock up. Finding out on Tuesday lunchtime that a cable went home in a van is a worse discovery.
- Filming the band? Get their okay first — and remember a clip with their music in it can be muted or blocked by the platform. See the phone filming guide.
08 — QuestionsQuick answers
How many spare batteries should we keep?
Enough for every wireless mic twice over, in a labelled box next to where the mics live. It's the cheapest insurance in the building. Ask us which type each of yours takes and we'll write it down for you.
Can we get a simple control our staff can actually use?
Yes, and if your team currently has to open a rack, you should. A wall panel or tablet app with clearly labelled zones and a few presets turns venue audio from a specialist job into a two-tap one. Ask us what's possible with your system.
The mic works in the function room but not on the deck. Why?
Either the deck isn't in the zone the mic is routed to, or you're out of range of the receiver. Both are worth sorting properly if functions regularly spill outside — tell us how you use the space and we'll set it up to match.
Should we buy our own spare mic?
If functions are important to you, yes — a tested spare that lives with the others. Ask us before buying, though: it needs to work with your existing receivers, and an incompatible mic is an expensive paperweight.
Our system is old. Is it worth replacing?
Ask us for a straight assessment. Older analogue systems can run well for years; where they cost you is flexibility — zones you can't separate, no presets, no simple control. If you're calling us about audio regularly, we'll tell you honestly whether repairs or a plan makes more sense.
Something's not working and there's a function in two hours.
Ring 1300 755 242 straight away. Don't work through this page and don't start adjusting the rack. Many systems can be reached remotely, so there's a real chance we fix it before doors.
09 — Print thisThe function sound check
Print it and put it with the microphones. Five minutes on the afternoon of every function that matters.
Function sound check — do it in the afternoon
Cyberry Know-How · cyberry.com.au/know-how
In the room, on the day
- Fresh batteries in every wireless mic
- Mic switched on — check the mute switch
- Speak into it at normal volume, real words
- Walk to the far corner while talking
- Coming out of the RIGHT room's speakers
- Walk the room to find feedback spots
- Test the second mic as well
- Leave it set up, switched off, in a known spot
- Tell tonight's staff where it is and that it's tested
If it squeals
- Move the mic away from the speakers
- Don't turn it up — reposition
- Don't cup the mic head
- Mute mics that aren't in use
Never
- Don't adjust anything inside the audio rack
- Don't unplug or re-route cables
- Don't let a band patch in unsupervised
- Check failed? Ring us NOW, not at 7pm
Last reviewed 25 July 2026. Written for venue audio systems as we install and support them; controls differ between venues, so if your setup doesn't match, ask us for a written zone map. Music licensing and any noise conditions on your licence are your club's to confirm — worth knowing what you hold before someone asks.
Function tonight and something's wrong?
Ring us now, not at seven.
Many venue audio systems can be reached remotely. The earlier you call, the better the odds we fix it before doors.