The most important purchase that any church technical leader can make for their church is the audio system. Every church needs an audio system that fits the size of its worship gathering space and worship style. The first step in purchasing a system is not to hire someone and solely take their word for what you should buy. Please continue reading before you think I'm off base with this statement.
...the church is at the mercy of whatever the consultant/contractor says because no “check and balance” is happening with recommendations other than the budget number.
Churches often look to third parties to help select and install new audio systems. This is because the church leaders making the decisions do not always have audio expertise, which also leaves them ill-equipped to participate in productive discussions with these outside vendors. But what if there was an easy way for church leaders to educate themselves on the basics of house of worship audio design and thus equip them to ask informed questions? This is where Biamp's "House of Worship Loudspeaker System Design Reference Guide" comes into play.
The church leader who spends the time to read and understand this brochure will have the necessary information to participate intelligently in the audio system design process...
For over 45 years, Biamp has worked to provide audio systems in the smallest of rooms to the largest of venues all over the world. Recently, this expertise has been applied and written into a downloadable brochure to educate church leaders on how to consider their church’s worship space and worship style when making an audio system purchase. The church leader who spends the time to read and understand this brochure will have the necessary information to participate intelligently in the audio system design process and make sure they are wisely using the resources the Lord has provided for the church to use.
Biamp's "House of Worship Loudspeaker System Design Reference Guide" begins by simply, yet creatively, illustrating the relationship between worship space design, the congregation/listener height, and a loudspeaker's coverage. Ten different venues are presented in the brochure showing this relationship. The color-coded boxes and lines within each worship space make it easy to see how the auditorium's width, depth, and height affect an audio system. Another aspect of the creativity and usefulness of the drawings is seen in not only being able to visualize a three-dimensional space but also a two-dimensional space from the side and the top views. These two-dimensional views help church leaders see how various loudspeakers can perform with the length and width of audio coverage.
Understanding this aspect of audio system design will help church leaders be discerning as they go through the audio system design process.
Biamp’s guide provides church leaders with easy-to-understand visualizations that illustrate the different mathematical planes of an audio system while suggesting loudspeakers that would perform well in each space. This is an excellent approach by Biamp to show that every room does not need a line array audio system. Some spaces and worship styles work best with column speakers. Others work well with point source designs. And finally, some even work best with the line array design. The critical thing to notice with Biamp's approach in the guide is how each space has a loudspeaker that fits the space's design and the church's worship style. Understanding this aspect of audio system design will help church leaders be discerning as they go through the audio system design process.
A final aspect of the guide that is particularly interesting to note is how church leaders are given options to consider with subwoofers and front-fill speakers. Improperly designing these aspects of a church's audio system has caused unnecessary distractions in many worship services. Biamp's guide carefully notes that churches have options regarding how subwoofers and front-fill loudspeakers are installed. Presenting the flexibility of having speakers hung from the ceiling, installed on the stage or ground, or even a combination of both shows the careful thought that Biamp has put into this guide to help church leaders make the best decision for their church and congregation. The guide even provides visual examples of how these designs would look in the space, allowing one to understand its impact perceived by the worshippers.
Biamp's "House of Worship Loudspeaker System Design Reference Guide" is a first-class tool aimed at educating and equipping church leaders to be a partner in their loudspeaker system design. Downloading and reading this document will not be wasted time for anyone, no matter your level of sound reinforcement knowledge and expertise.
