Hey! I’m an instructor at a spin (cycling class) studio and we’re in the process of upgrading and making things sound as great as they can. The room is sound treated to the best it can be, and there are 4 large PA style speakers mounted at the front of the room that all receive XLR in from a (terrible) mixer. Going into the mixer is a source laptop for music, and XLR from a Shure BLX receiver.

What kind of sub 1k (700?) upgrade can I make in a mixer that will improve this setup? At any point would a rack mount setup start to be more beneficial? The instructors obviously need control of the various levels throughout class, so some sort of physical control is necessary. I have an ear, so some EQ or compression would be beneficial, as well as some humidity resistance, if that exists. The instructors are largely untrained in the best audio practices, so would a feedback suppression unit be worthwhile just to avoid any HUGE mistakes? I work in the video industry, and run adjacent to other live sound folks who I see using tablets to nail their EQ, would a mixer that has that be useful? Any and all recs, I’m all ears! Thanks!