“ Churches are the hardest spaces in the world to get the right balance between worship , speech , and music .”
control an entire system from a tablet or smart phone – they have made it possible to more effectively meet the challenges inherent in designing solutions for traditional spaces , preserving the aesthetics and atmosphere while providing superior sound . “ Even passive array columns that are not digitally steerable are collapsing the vertical control ,” Hosbach says , “ so I can project a bit clearer and cleaner because I ’ m taking the upper air space out of the equation .”
And there are labour savings as well : “ Because we don ’ t have to crawl into a ceiling or attic and rig a bunch of 100 to 200-pound loudspeakers . Because I can take a 75 to 100-pound array , mount it to a wall , and run a network cable to it . Because I don ’ t have to walk into a church with a 24-channel mixing console , but instead come in with a digital processor – where nobody sees a knob – that they can control from their iPhone .”
THE RIGHT SOLUTION
The design and integration of a sound reinforcement system obviously depends on the type of worship , Hosbach says . “ Is it strictly liturgy with a pastor or priest , a reader , a cantor , and choir ? Do instruments need to be reinforced – an acoustic guitar or praise band elements ?”
It can , however , be less expensive to implement digital solutions than the analog elements of times past . “ Strictly speaking , the amount of outboard gear necessary has decreased and advances in tuning devices also allow for more precision in a shorter amount of time .”
The expense comes in with monitoring systems , powered vs . passive loudspeakers , whether a “ system within a system ” is used to provide reinforcement from , for example , a balcony face in the rear of the church , and if assisted listening systems are necessary .
Also , acoustic and audio reinforcement solutions in churches must achieve a fine balance between a live atmosphere that supports congregational and choral singing and high intelligibility for speech .
In terms of reverberation , De Buglio says , the difference between a contemporary and traditional worship space can be as little as two-tenths or three-tenths of a second , plus accounting for the room volume . “ If you have a low ceilinged room , obviously you can ’ t do much so far as maintaining a really bright , uplifting congregational singing experience , whether it ’ s contemporary or traditional , but if you have a nice high ceiling to work with , then that balance is much easier to achieve .”
Any given solution must also serve the specific needs of the church and its congregation not just presently , but for the future as well .
Over time , as the demographic of a congregation changes , many church communities have altered their style of worship and the music they present during services and special events to attract more members and better engage the ones they have .
“ Systems basically get tuned to be able to handle critical speech or music ,” Hosbach says . “ If they ’ re getting more into contemporary music , or the space is big enough or needs a lift even on , say , a piano , we ’ ll add a subwoofer or a bass module to fill out the fundamentals . Not that we ’ re going rock and roll ; we ’ re just filling up those fundamental bass frequencies that a smaller , say , steerable array or compact , low profile loudspeaker can ’ t reproduce .”
POSITIVE RESULTS
Hosbach has noticed a change in the focus of many traditional churches . “ A lot of the classic denominations – Catholic , Lutheran , Episcopal , Presbyterian – it used to be to satisfy people , they ’ d need to have a praise band , to do less traditional worship . What I ’ m finding is there ’ s a fairly significant sweep back to traditional worship settings – pipe organs are going back in , we ’ re seeing more acoustic instrumentation as opposed to electric guitars ... Some younger people , they ’ ll say , ‘ I like my rock and hip-hop , but when I come to church , I want to be in church .”
De Buglio has also noticed an ongoing trend over his years of working in the HOW market – one that , regardless of the type of worship , speaks to the value of correcting poor sounding rooms .
“ I kept records from 1981 to about 2004 , keeping track of past clients and their attendance before and after the acoustics and the sound systems were updated ,” he shares . In his estimation , there ’ s a direct cor-
DSH Audio Visions – St . Francis Xavier Cathedral in Green Bay , WI
32 • PROFESSIONAL SOUND