In almost every article I have read in trade publications about installed church sound systems, the size of the system suggests that the budget for the materials and labor is in excess of most people’s annual compensation. Each house of worship has its own unique sound system requirements that depend on the congregation’s style of worship and the building architecture. In this article, I’ll focus on the requirements for the smaller church congregations of up to 500 people. Specifically, I’ll concentrate on good systems that can be purchased and installed for a cost of between $1,800 and $10,000.

Know Your Customer
In the U.S., the average congregation size ranges from 100 to about 200 people, depending on denomination and geographic location. In most of these small congregations, as well as in new church startups, the sound system budget can be somewhat limited. In fact, most of the small church business is invisible to the average sound contractor. Why?

Several years ago, a rather comprehensive national market survey sponsored by a major equipment manufacturer was done on the small P.A. market. A surprising discovery of the survey was that almost all first-time purchases of small systems are made at the retail level and that retail music stores are unaware of the volume of business they sell into the institution market. The median street price for an “acceptable” entry-level P.A. system that includes two microphones, mic stands, power mixer and two 15-inch, 2-way speakers is around $1,700. When this equipment fails to meet the expectations of the users, or technical problems arise that are beyond the scope of the users, either a contractor or a repair technician is sought out to resolve the problems. Unfortunately, this places the contractor in the awkward position of having to deliver the bad news that the cheap-system solution really isn’t a solution at all.

An interesting side note of the extensive market survey was that after the “recommended” entry-level system was purchased by the market research firm and used over a period of time for various applications, it was obvious to all involved that an upgrade was necessary.

How can you, as a contractor, circumvent the aforementioned scenario? The secret is to know your market and its requirements. A good way to gather information is to attend the weekend services at local houses of worship and see for yourself.

Basic Equipment Requirements
Each faith and/or denomination has its own style of worship and church government (who signs the checks). Regardless of denomination and style of worship, one thing is common: the spoken word. From there, there is a wide divergence of worship styles and requirements, and herein lies the technical and political challenge. A good example of such diversity can be seen in comparing the musical requirements of a conservative, mainline congregation with that of a southern gospel church. Equally diverse are the styles and loudness of traditional and contemporary services. Style and loudness are important issues. A budget sound system that runs out of headroom, distorts easily and has a skewed spectral balance only exacerbates the problem of “it’s too loud!” Ideally, the system should handle any type of service within a limited budget.

Starting with a basic thumbnail sketch at the input side of the system, one will need one or more microphones, a cassette recorder and a CD player. Allow about $150 for the CD player and cassette recorder (a good duplication cassette deck runs about $300).

In most applications the vocal and instrument microphones are standard dynamic. Choir pickup is usually best covered by condenser microphones, and the clergy may prefer small lavalier (tie-clip) microphones for freedom of movement. If the budget allows, a wireless system will set the pastor free. However, the small cables and connectors used in the lavalier microphones for both wired and wireless operation are maintenance hassles as the cables are always breaking at either the microphone end or the connector end. The old adage, “he who has spares has no cares,” applies to mini-mics. Plan on budgeting at least $75 to $150 per dynamic microphone, $200 to $500 for good condenser microphones and $500 to $1000 for a versatile wireless system.

Since it is highly unlikely that the budget will allow for professional cassette decks or CD players, many houses of worship will end up purchasing consumer grade units. Often, the congregational members will want a tape of a particular service, so it would be advisable to get at least one duplicating cassette deck. Because of the tape recorder monitoring loop, it is good advice to buy two decks and avoid any possibility of feedback within the mixing console due to operator ignorance or error. One deck should be dedicated for playback only, the other for recording only, thus making it impossible to send the system off into ultrasonic feedback that will result in either blowing up the power amplifiers or the high-frequency drivers.

Mixer Requirements. First, to best determine the number of microphone input channels that will be needed, let’s review some of the possibilities. In order of relative importance we have:

Source	No. of Mic Inputs
1. Prayer leader	1
2. Chancel	1–2
3. Hand Held Vocal	2–4
4. Choir	2–5
5. Musical Instruments	2–8
6. Roving congregational	0–4

As you can see, a mixer with eight microphone inputs does not allow for much in the way of expansion, but it will handle the minimum requirements if there are additional line-level inputs present. At the other extreme, we are looking at 24 microphone input channels to handle everything.

Second are the stereo line-level input requirements. Since music is an integral part of many worship services, stereo playback for both cassettes and CDs are frequently used. It is quite common in a service for a member to sing along with a pre-recorded instrumental background. The stereo input requirements are one each of the following: stereo cassette, CD Player, keyboard input, and a stereo video input.

If one doesn’t mind unplugging equipment, only one stereo input is needed, but for convenience two or more is preferable.

Third is the number of auxiliary sends per channel for monitoring and signal-processing effects. Typically, the “Auxiliary Send” mix has the signal routed off pre-fader, while the “Effects Send” operates post-fader. Basic requirements are 1 to 2 sends/inserts/returns (effects for signal processing) and 1 to 6 sends (monitor mix). The bare minimum requirement is one effects channel and one auxiliary channel send.

Fourth, the mixer should have both left and right RCA tape outputs for recording the service and, preferably, balanced stereo outputs and a balanced mono output. These requirements can be filled with a typical 6-to-8-channel mono- or stereo-powered mixer.

The system will be missing the pre-fader Cue/Solo functions that allow the operator to cue up songs on the CDs or cassettes, channel mute buttons, and functions that allow sub-groups to be mixed (like grouping all instruments or all vocals). These features are found in most stand-alone and high-cost powered mixers.

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