Sound Systems: Contemporary Services

Whether your church is considering such a change or you have already jumped in with both feet, you may soon become aware that your current sound system may present several obstacles. Depending on the specific style and content of worship, several issues will need to be considered.

MAIN LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM

The existing sound system may be perfectly acceptable for speech and occasional reinforcement of acoustical instruments such as woodwinds or strings. However, contemporary worship music is more demanding on sound systems. Certainly an increase in dynamic range (the spectrum of soft and loud sounds) will put greater demands on the sound system. Contemporary music, especially electronic instrumentation, will also require wider frequency response, needing more bass response and often better high frequency performance. Higher quality components that can handle more power and produce greater volume may be required.

ROOM ACOUSTICS

Many worship spaces have been designed to favor choral music with organ, piano and possible orchestral instrumentation. These rooms have a live, reverberant acoustic sound quality. In other words, the sound takes some time to fade (decay) away. Your sound system may have been designed to provide adequate intelligibility in a fairly reverberant room. But add electronic instrumentation, and maybe even drums, and any hope of vocal intelligibility is lost. Thus, a sound system upgrade may help. You may also need to consider acoustical treatment to reduce the problems of room reverberation. Acoustical treatment systems can even be designed to vary the room acoustics for a specific service or event.

Figure 1 - Direct Box

SOUND SYSTEM INPUTS AND WIRING

Contemporary music will require more microphones and mixer inputs. You will probably run out of microphone input jacks very quickly. Solving this problem may be a simple matter of pulling additional cables through the existing conduit and adding more input jacks on existing microphone plates. However, the existing conduits may not be sufficient to handle the necessary cables. One solution is to add a small mixer near the musicians and singers.

And how do you plug an electronic keyboard or other instrument into a microphone input jack? The answer is a direct box (see Figure 1).

OPERATION AND CONTROL

Sound systems for a contemporary worship service often require a larger mixer to handle the extra inputs. Usually, a more sophisticated type of sound system mixer will be needed. Important questions to consider are:

• How many inputs do we need?
• What other features are essential?
• Who will operate it?

Sound system operation for a contemporary worship service will require more than a "set it and leave it" style. If your sound system operators are not familiar with running a multi-channel mixer, consider what training they will need. Even the best system will sound poor if the operator does not understand how to operate it.

Where is the best place to locate the mixer and sound operator? It is essential to be located in the same acoustical space with the congregation, preferably somewhere in the congregational seating area. Locating the mixer in front of anyone will no doubt cause visual distraction. Either locate them at the rear of the main seating area or possibly in a balcony. DO NOT locate the mixer under a balcony or in another separate room with a glass window or opening. Make sure the mix position is located so one of the existing loudspeakers in the system is pointed directly at the mixer. You do not want to position the mixer where the sound level is noticeably softer than other seating areas.

...make certain that you have plenty of good microphone cables and solid microphone stands...

MICROPHONES

All of these improvements will mean very little unless a sufficient quantity of suitable microphones are available for singers and instruments. Then purchasing new vocal microphones, select a microphone that will sound the best for most of the singers. It is wise to purchase the same model microphone. This helps in system set-up. Also, if one microphone should fail, another can be substituted quickly without audible difference. Also make certain that you have plenty of good microphone cables and solid microphone stands. Nothing is more frustrating than a bad cable or unpredictable wobbly stand.

MONITOR LOUDSPEAKERS

Eventually, if not at first, the singers and musicians will begin to ask, beg, plead and then insist on monitor loudspeakers located on the platform. The musicians need monitor loudspeakers to hear themselves and each other. This presents a completely new set of problems. Here are more questions to ask:

• How many monitors do we need?
• How many can we hook up to one amplifier?
• Do we need another monitor amplifier?

The sound system mixer will need to provide a separate blend of vocals and instruments to the monitor loudspeakers. This mix will need to be different from the main congregational loudspeakers. To accommodate this need, your sound system mixer must have several auxiliary mixes and outputs.

If you are adding monitor loudspeakers, avoid running loudspeaker cables in the same conduit with microphone cables. But what if you have only one conduit path from the equipment and mixer to the platform? The solution is to use self-powered monitor loudspeakers. You may also want to consider headphone monitors for the drummer and other instrumentalists.

PLATFORM SOUND ISOLATION

You will soon encounter problems with sound levels from the platform monitors affecting what the congregation hears. You will probably also run into problems where certain instruments are louder than the singers or other instruments. You can do several things to minimize these problems. Experiment with stage positioning of instruments and singers. If you have any instrument amplifiers on the platform, place them in front of and pointing toward the musicians (away from the congregation). If you have included drums in the instrumentation, try to locate the drums as far away from the singers and piano as possible. You may also want to consider using plexiglass isolation panels around the drums to reduce the level of sound. Be aware of the volume of the monitor loudspeakers on the platform. You may need to reduce the monitor volume depending on how close the monitor loudspeakers are to the congregation.

The newest option is an in-the-ear monitors, which can be wired or wireless. These tiny monitors fit into the ear and are practically invisible to the congregation. Since there are no monitors speakers, the sound the congregation hears can be much better.

WIRELESS MICROPHONES

What if the worship leader wants to be free from using a wired microphone? Should they use the pastor's wireless lavalier? Generally speaking, this is not a good solution. A better idea is to add an additional wireless system with a hand-held microphone. Although not recommended, you could add a hand-held microphone transmitter to an existing wireless lavalier system. However, YOU CAN'T USE THE LAVALIER AND A HAND-HELD TRANSMITTER AT THE SAME TIME WITH ONLY ONE RECEIVER. To operate simultaneously, each transmitter must have a separate receiver. Each system must also operate on different, compatible radio frequencies to assure interference-free operation.

Do not expect to just show up Sunday morning, set up the equipment and "go for it"...

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Do not expect to just show up Sunday morning, set up the equipment and "go for it"&emdash; especially if you're just beginning this project. Have several rehearsals with vocals and instruments with complete system set-up. Figure out how much time it takes to set up AND tear down the equipment. Try to eliminate all the squeals and howls and pops BEFORE the service. Your goal should be to minimize any surprises which can disrupt the worship service.

PORTABLE SOUND SYSTEMS

A portable system also takes careful consideration and planning. The equipment should be selected using the same guidelines as a permanent system design.

Whether you are planning to upgrade your permanent system or add a portable one, consider renting for several weeks first. This may help answer many of your questions. It will help to eliminate the "Oh, by the ways" before making a substantial financial investment. It would also be wise to hire a reputable sound system operator to run the rental equipment. Have your own operators assist and observe. This is invaluable to your operators' success&emdash;and that of the whole service, too.

CALL US

If you feel that contemporary worship music could become an important part of your worship experience, why risk disappointment? If technical difficulties cause too many problems, this opportunity may be abandoned without fair consideration. Rely on a professional to help you make the best of this adventure.

Your local contractor would appreciate the opportunity to share their expertise with you. A professional staff and engineers can help you avoid costly mistakes.

by Travis Ludwig © 1996 Internet Sound Institute (www.soundinstitute.com). This article is for personal use only. Any commercial reproduction is not permitted without permission. To obtain permission, contact ISI at hopi@soundinstitute.com

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