Sophie asks:

Hey Josh – after a beach ceremony last weekend I vowed to never lug my massive speaker around again – its ridiculously heavy, I’m pregnant, plus sand = a terrible time. I loved your set-up at the conference and definitely did not write enough notes at that time about what was going on.

Bose S1 Pro, check. If I go with 2 speakers like you had do they have to be connected with a cable? I don’t think yours did but some audio store people are telling me I’d have to?

I’m not too tech savvy but have reasonable intelligence so I know I can work it all out when I get going.

Ideally I’d like 2 speakers playing all audio at once – me speaking through a headset (something decent Rode or the like), couples into a handheld (Senheiser right?) and music played through Bluetooth. This is pretty much what I’ve told the few places I’ve approached so far but then it gets complicated quick when they’re talking to me about mixers and cables etc etc and I’m lost.

Any quick and not too laborious help??

A quick step one for anyone who isn’t familiar with my PA system recommendation, check out this article first

The best way to demonstrate how I manage two speakers without a mixing desk or cables is with a diagram. Missing off the below diagram however is a second microphone input, like a headset you mention. But think of it of just a second XLR input into speaker 1, on a third channel.

The important notes is that you have three wireless communications happening, two into speaker 1, then one from speaker 1 into speaker 2.

Simply put, everything goes into one speaker, that speaker acts as a mixer, then you take the audio out of speaker 1 and send it to speaker 2.

I know when I run this set up I will often have my microphone volume at maximum on speaker 1, then the volume on speaker 2 sits around 75% for an even left and right spread of audio.

Different microphones, audio set ups, rooms, and configurations will apply so the rule as always is to use your ears and to do a sound check.