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ACQUIRING A SOUND SYSTEM FOR YOUR CHURCH
(Part One)
By Dr.
Tosin Odumosu
Strange as it
seems, most churches buy sound systems three or four times
before they finally end up with one that works well enough
to meet their needs! The first or System Number One is
purchased when they build the church, and the Chairman of
the Dedication Committee ‘suddenly’ discovers (just a few
days to D-day) that the forthcoming ceremony will require a
PA system. Emissaries, who are fully armed with naira-filled
opaque black plastic or Ghana-must-go bags,
are dispatched to both Alaba International and Alaba Local
markets with instructions that they MUST come back with a
‘suitable’ sound system that would do the church proud. In
some other cases, the architect in charge of the project
assures the church that he’ll design it (a job he is least
trained to perform). What really happens is that he passes
the work along to a supplier or trader, usually the new kid
on the block who’s trying to get his foot in the door by
simply supplying a set of speakers and amplifiers that are
probably not compatible. He provides a list of whatever
equipment he has the best deals on, and sends it along as a
recommended list. The Pastor or the HOD Music gives the
go-ahead to purchase. Often the vendor is the low bidder,
but nearly as often someone who knows very little about
sound systems. And since there’s no knowledgeable authority
to decide which the better deal is, the cheapest system
often wins. Invariably, this kind of system is unlikely to
meet the church’s needs anyway, and most of the equipment is
replaced within a year or two. Why are these first systems
replaced? Some of the most common problems are feedback
(howling), poor speech intelligibility and muddy music
caused by too much reverberation; the system can’t be heard
on the platform, dead spots, hot spots, and just plain
unpleasant sound quality. And so we move on to System Number
Two.
There are several
variations on System Number Two. Often, members of the
praise and worship team make exploratory visits to their
friendly musical instrument and recording equipment store,
where everyone is, has been, or knows someone who is or has
been a regular instrumentalist for a band. And all of those
folks know how to put together a sound system (after all,
they did it every night for their band, and got paid for
it!) Add to that the fact that they’re on commission,
selling all kinds of sound equipment designed to be used in
club houses and hotels. And gee whiz, isn’t a church system
just like a bigger bar band system? So we have another fast
track business guy who doesn’t know much of anything about
sound systems for churches, but he’s selling his equipment.
A second common
variation on System Two starts out with someone in the
congregation who is either an electrical/electronics
equipment vendor or knows someone who is a pseudo “sound
engineer”. And because he’s a friend, or a friend of a
friend, the Pastor asks him to give them a new system. Maybe
he’s actually qualified to do it, but more often his
specialty is electronic systems for offices and factories,
or hi-fi equipment for domestic use. So here’s another
“specialist” who doesn’t know enough to get the design
right. So this second time around, the “specialist sound
engineer” is chosen because he’s someone’s friend, not
because of any proven ability to put together a good church
sound system. System Number Two is purchased and installed,
and rarely works any better than the first. But it’s now a
couple of years later, twice as much money was spent as
planned, and attendance is sagging because of the poor
sound. The Pastor still has poor communication with the
congregation, and the praise and worship team sounds more
like noise than inspiration. Desperate measures are called
for and this leads to System Number Three.
If they’re lucky,
the church comes to the realization at this point that
they’d better find someone who really knows what they’re
doing, a proven expert with a track record. That someone is
a Sound System Consultant/Professional who specializes in
sound system design for churches and performance spaces.
Someone who understands how loudspeaker systems interact
with large rooms, why feedback happens and how to prevent
it, how to get good sound and equal loudness to everyone in
the congregation and on the platform, how to prevent music
from turning to mush, how to prevent hums and buzzes from
happening, and all of the myriad other things which can go
wrong in a big room. Someone who insists on coming in to
meet with the pastor, leaders of the praise and worship and
technical teams, study the worship space and measure its
acoustics. Someone, who may have to be paid to design
and specify the system because that is their
profession and that is what he is trained to do. Why does
all this have to be so complicated? After all, aren’t we
talking about nothing more than a simple PA system? Why
can’t the church just buy a mixer and some loudspeakers from
Alaba (or a music store down the road) and hang them on the
wall? That’s what they did in the smaller church they just
moved out of, and it worked fine! There are several major
reasons why matters of this nature must be handled
professionally.
First, as the size
of the worship space gets larger, the demands placed on the
sound system grow exponentially. In a small space, the choir
and praise band are much less likely to need amplification
to carry to the congregation, and there is rarely enough
reverberation to make it hard to understand the spoken word.
At a time, the church in my village never had a sound
system, and we could hear the preacher just fine! But its
seating capacity was only a few dozen. The larger the space,
the more reverberation muddles both the spoken word and the
praise band. Related problems are echoes from rear walls,
balcony faces, sidewalls, and ceilings that make things even
worse. It takes very skilful sound system design
to overcome these problems. It can be done, and done well,
but it isn’t easy. Sound must be very carefully controlled,
focused only on listeners with as little as possible
spilling onto walls and ceilings. This takes the right type
of loudspeakers in the right place and very carefully aimed.
Loudspeakers designed for bar bands or touring sound are
rarely the right choice here.
Second, the place
of sound and amplification has become much more central to
praise and worship. Music is used to inspire, to lift the
spirit, and to bring the unchurched into the fold. Choirs,
which used to sing with only a piano or organ, are now
accompanied by a contemporary band. The sound system must be
able to make the choir much louder to balance with drums and
electronic instruments, and the various musicians must be
able to hear each other well to play together. Again,
careful control of the sound is key if this is to be
accomplished without feedback. Acoustic design of the
worship space is fundamentally important to both of these
concerns, and many of our churches are designed with no
competent acoustic advice. Often, there is so much
reverberation in a church that the praise band has turned to
mush before the sound system is even turned on. Careful
sound system design and enough money CAN
provide good speech intelligibility in almost any space. But
there is NOTHING that can be done with a sound system to
improve the sound of the praise band in a bad acoustic
environment beyond overpowering it with carefully focused
energy. By this time everything is far too loud for comfort,
and often so loud that it both drives people away and causes
permanent hearing loss! Certainly not a Christian thing to
do to anyone!
Dr. Tosin Odumosu
can be contacted at newsoundsystem@praisefoundation.com
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