O.T. Sound Systems for Churches

For over 30 years, I have been helping churches with their sound systems...not an easy task, since everyone is an expert...especially those who don't know sound systems.

Since 'being heard' is the most important thing in churches..you would think...helping with sound would be easy...not so.

Most of the churches I lent advice to, eventually went with my suggestions.

Recently, I heard from a church that, two years later, has decided my suggestions work the best. Now, they want me to come back and help out with original suggestions after other efforts didn't work.

Part two.

They would appreciate me playing bass. I suggested that I play a keyboard, bass lines.

Guess I'm not sure if this is something I want to do.

I was part of my church praise group for a couple years. It requires a scheduled commitment early on Sundays..be sure you want to do that at this stage of the game.

Correct, sparky, ... I have been asked, by other members, to join the choir ... It's not the Sunday commitment that concerns me - even though we are out of town a fair amount - but the commitment for Holidays such as Easter and Christmas, times when we do our best to continue with age old family traditions ...

As for recommending sound systems, I would think that is a pretty tough job, considering that most churches are 'cavernous', with a lot of hard surfaces ...

Hire a audio sound engineer to get evaluated.

My daughter's church hired a sound engineer and they ended up with a fantastic Bose system that fills the entire church with incredibly well balanced, very high quality sound, both musical and sermons. The system consisted of 4 24 speaker L1 columns, wall mounted and I believe 2 sub woofers positioned beneath the stage area. The church seats 600 ppl and the volume was equal from all positions within the church, plus out in the hallways and entrance, even with the doors closed. The clarity was unsurpassed as was the overall sound quality.

Good luck,

Gary

A few years ago our pastor had a very much needed new sound system installed ... much like the one Gary describes, it consists of 4 BOSE line array columns - I have no idea how many speakers are in each, but they are longer than the ones that come with the BOSE systems some on this board use - and I haven't seen a sub woofer anywhere ... the sound is great except in the very rear of the church when the pastor, who has a booming voice, is speaking ... I'm not sure if it is because the sound is bouncing off that back wall or not ... but the solo vocalist and choir sound great ... and the $100,000 pipe organ donated by some parishioners stands on its own ...

I was giving a speech once and asked if everyone could hear me. One guy in the back said he couldn't hear....and everybody got up and moved back to where he was.

chas

LOL. A similar one. In a church where everybody sat toward the rear, a stranger walked in and took a front seat. After the service, the preacher greeted the stranger and asked why he sat up front. "I'm a bus driver, and I came to learn how you succeed in getting people to move to the back."