The real wattage of rental speakers on the Northern Beaches of Sydney

Powered Party and PA Speakers hiring on the Northern Beaches of Sydney what do you get for your money?

A few years ago you could walk into Harvey Norman in Balgowlah and see these amazing sound systems made from genuine plastic that looked somewhere between  a Centurions helmet and a Star Wars Storm trooper advertising 1000 watts of peak power.

Many people bought these systems that have long passed into council collection folklore, as they were not what they claimed to be.
Since then we have had the D class amplifier revolution which first allowed the lower end and now the higher end suppliers to re badge from Continuous power (RMS) to Peak Power (PMPO), when advertising their amazing new products.
Peak power is the maximum level of power output that is measured during an observation period. Peak power here refers to the maximum amount of power an electronic component can possibly handle for an instant without damage.
Not something to try at home or in a hire environment, be aware some hire companies now advertise these figures and the number of people these (PMPO) systems can be heard by.
Not good when your hire company will charge you for damage to the 1000 watt (PMPO) speaker when your coverage is less than half the specified range or less. 

The term "Music Power" has been used in relation to both amplifiers and loudspeakers with some validity. When live music is recorded without amplitude compression or limiting, the resulting signal contains brief peaks of very much higher amplitude (20 dB or more) than the mean, and since power is proportional to the square of signal voltage their reproduction would require an amplifier capable of providing brief peaks of power around a hundred times greater than the average level. Thus the ideal 100-watt audio system would need to be capable of handling brief peaks of 10,000 watts in order to avoid clipping^{[citation needed]} (see Programme levels). Most loudspeakers are in fact capable of withstanding peaks of several times their continuous rating (though not a hundred times), since thermal inertia prevents the voice coils from burning out on short bursts. It is therefore acceptable, and desirable, to drive a loudspeaker from a power amplifier with a higher continuous rating several times the steady power that the speaker can withstand, but only if care is taken not to overheat it; this is difficult, especially on modern recordings which tend to be heavily compressed and so can be played at high levels without the obvious distortion that would result from an uncompressed recording when the amplifier started clipping.
An amplifier can be designed with an audio output circuitry capable of generating a certain power level, but with a power supply unable to supply sufficient power for more than a very short time, and with heat sinking that will overheat dangerously if full output power is maintained for long. This makes good technical and commercial sense, as the amplifier can handle music with a relatively low mean power, but with brief peaks; a high 'music power' output can be advertised (and delivered), and money saved on the power supply and heat sink. Program sources that are significantly compressed are more likely to cause trouble, as the mean power can be much higher for the same peak power. Circuitry which protects the amplifier and power supply can prevent equipment damage in the case of sustained high power operation.
More sophisticated equipment usually used in a professional context has advanced circuitry which can handle high peak power levels without delivering more average power to the speakers than they and the amplifier can handle safely.

Hire Companies often Offer Powered speakers please read below.

Active speakers comprise two or three speakers per channel, each fitted with its own amplifier, and preceded by an electronic crossover filter to separate the low-level audio signal into the frequency bands to be handled by each speaker. This approach enables complex active filters to be used on the low level signal, without the need to use passive crossovers of high power handling capability but limited rolloff and with large and expensive inductors and capacitors. An additional advantage is that peak power handling is greater if the signal has simultaneous peaks in two different frequency bands. A single amplifier has to handle the peak power when both signal voltages are at their crest; as power is proportional to the square of voltage, the peak power when both signals are at the same peak voltage is proportional to the square of the sum of the voltages. If separate amplifiers are used, each must handle the square of the peak voltage in its own band. For example, if bass and midrange each has a signal corresponding to 10 W of output, a single amplifier capable of handling a 40 W peak would be needed, but a bass and a treble amplifier each capable of handling 10 W would be sufficient. This is relevant when peaks of comparable amplitude occur in different frequency bands, as with wideband percussion and high-amplitude bass notes.
For most audio applications more power is needed at low frequencies. This requires a high-power amplifier for low frequencies (e.g., 200 watts for 20–200 Hz band), lower power amplifier for the midrange (e.g., 50 watts for 200 to 1000 Hz), and even less the high end (e.g. 5 watts for 1000–20000 Hz). Proper design of a bi/tri amplifier system requires a study of driver (speaker) frequency response and sensitivities to determine optimal crossover frequencies and power amplifier powers.

There is a lot to think about here and some of it can be dull call Northern Beaches PA Hire on 0407498970
if you have any questions or have been hired the wrong speaker for the job.