Since the mid-1800s, Grace United Methodist Church (UMC) has been a landmark in downtown Wilmington, Del., with its stone edifice and soaring 55-foot arched ceilings.
“We are an urban church with deep roots in traditional worship,” says Dr. Neil Harmon, director of music at Grace. “The church has developed a reputation for excellence in music and worship.” Reaching a largely middle-class community, some commute in from as far as 30 minutes away to participate in the church's worship services. Their highly sought-after choir includes members involved in opera, and Grace has a resident chamber music ensemble.
While the music program has always performed at a high level of quality, the supporting audio system was a different story. The first two audio systems were not designed and installed by professionals and had feedback issues. The first was a speaker cluster hanging at the front of the sanctuary at the end of 30 feet of cable, and did not fit in at all with the aesthetics of the room. Additionally, the systems were not designed to work with the high reflectivity of the church architecture; therefore speech intelligibility was also a consistent problem.
Addressing the Audio Problems
Desiring to put this problem to bed once and for all, Grace UMC worked with Lee Bilotta, a sound consultant who teaches sound technology at Valley Forge Christian College, located north of nearby Philadelphia, to obtain recommendations for the type of system needed. Bilotta recommended several audio companies for the church to consider, and Audiobahn, Inc. of Pottstown, Pa., was chosen to provide the service.
Bilotta recommended four primary goals for the new sound system: move the front of house (FOH) mix position from the balcony to the main floor for better communication between the sound tech and worship leader; improve intelligibility of the spoken word without altering the excellent reverberant acoustics of the sanctuary; modernize the recording capabilities; and ensure an aesthetically pleasing installation.
With the acoustical challenges and aesthetic considerations, speaker selection would be the critical component of this installation. Tony Hersch of Audiobahn explored options for loudspeakers and considered a flown compact line array, but quickly discounted it because of the aesthetics. The Entasys speakers from Community Professional Loudspeakers had the attributes he was looking for: a small form factor and a digitally steerable pattern with tight vertical control. Modeling the room with EASE, a software system that predicts the sound coverage in a room, Hersch found he should be able to mount the column-format speakers on the side walls of the sanctuary starting at about eight feet off the floor, right in front of the first row of pews.
Hersch presented his plan to the church, and they requested a demo of the system. “We set up a pair of Community Entasys full-range cabinets on tripods, along with a Community VLF208 subwoofer to give it some bottom end,” Hersch describes. “Everyone in the choir got up and sang through it. We utilized a Shure wireless lavalier system and a Countryman podium mic for the demo. We were able to tune the lav mic to a point where it sounded like a good quality handheld mic. The sound was wonderful, and the church was just blown away.”
"The sound was wonderful, and the church was just blown away."
Tony Hersch
Audiobahn
The church also took delivery of one of the first available Soundcraft Si Compact digital mixing consoles, selected for its combination of an easy learning curve and processing power. A Multichannel Audio Digital Interface, or MADI, card is installed in the Soundcraft mixer to enable future multi-track recording to a ProTools Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) system.
For choir pickup, four Audix MicroBoom microphones are used, positioned on stands in front of the choir. A Countryman Isomax podium microphone is used at the pulpit, and a Shure SLX wireless system with both lavalier and Countryman E6i microphones for more mobile needs. Three Shure SLX Series wireless handheld systems round out the microphone complement.
The sound from the vintage concert grand piano is reinforced by means of a Helpinstill piano pickup, a transducer that picks up the string vibrations magnetically from the piano structure. On the main platform, monitoring is handled through four custom-stained Community iBOX i2w8 cabinets. Community Veris 8 cabinets provide monitoring for the choir.
QSC Power Lite amplifiers are used to power the loudspeakers, and signal processing is handled by an Ashly Protea 3.6SP digital signal processing unit. Listen assist for the hearing impaired is provided by a Williams PPA377 system.
Audio Operations
A sound system, however, is only as good as the person operating it. Grace UMC wanted to get the best out of its new system—and wanted consistency in the sound experienced by attendees.
A former choir member, Terisa Shoremount, studied audio technology from Bilotta at Valley Forge Christian College. “She was the best-qualified person in our church family to handle the audio needs of our church,” states Harmon. Shoremount now leads the audio team at Grace UMC.
“Terisa runs everything on a normal Sunday,” Harman adds. “She provides training for backup substitutes and church staff as well.”
Prior to Shoremount taking the lead, the audio operations at the church were not up to professional standards, and Harman says the audio was more of a distraction than a help. Mistakes were frequent and diminished the impact of the spoken word.
“Now, under Terisa’s leadership, we don’t even notice the ‘behind the scenes’ operations that are making worship audible,” says Harman. “Terisa is 100% reliable, sharp, and focused. She is flexible and easily adapts to unexpected situations. We are so blessed to have Terisa at Grace Church.”
Challenges
Installing a new sound system in a stone church that’s 150 years old presented some challenges for Audiobahn.
“Getting the wiring to the side walls was the biggest issue in this installation,” Hersch states. “The walls were lathe and plaster placed over the stone outer walls of the building. We were able to locate some voids between the lathe and the stone, and snaked cabling up through those.”
Wiring the platform itself was straightforward, as the space was accessible from the basement below.
Several weeks were spent in carpentry, pulling out some pews to make room for the new sound booth and constructing the technical space in a way that blended well with the interior of the church.
For an investment of $68,000, Grace UMC finally has an audio system that works with its facility’s architecture and music program.
“We couldn’t have done this properly without our consultant, Lee Bilotta,” Harmon concludes. “His expertise in the audio technology field was invaluable to this project. And Audiobahn did a great job in handling the design and installation. The new audio system exceeds our expectations. Before the installation we received constant complaints from individuals who could not understand the spoken word. The new system delivers a clear, natural sound to the listener. We only wish we had done the installation sooner.”
