Why Churches Buy
Three Sound Systems
and How You Can Sell Them Their Last
By Jim Brown
Page 3
Things
to Keep in Mind
You can be the consultant who sells a house of worship its last
sound system. By considering the acoustics of the space and working
carefully with all contractors, you can design and help install the
sound system that serves all the requirements of the space and can expand
and grow with the church. You’ll earn gratitude, respect—and
referals—for a job well done.
Provide good acoustic and sound system advice early in the design process—before
construction begins. Acoustics greatly affect speech and music in a
church and are determined entirely by the architecture and finishes
of the room.
Fixing the acoustics after the building is built is often quite expensive;
getting it right before construction starts is not.
Remind the church committee or pastor that hiring the right sound system
consultant early in the project will save them money in the long term.
It is always cheaper and better to do it right the first time.
If budgets are limited, it is far better to have the design work done
correctly and to defer the purchase of options such as an organ or a
sound system for later.
If your company does not have the resources on staff to provide acoustic
and sound system services, consultants are good insurance against serious
problems later on.
Contemporary music and traditional European music make very different
demands on room acoustics. It is quite costly (and often impractical)
to provide a workable acoustic environment for both forms in the same
space. No sound system can remove reverberation from a space, but if
contemporary music will be part of worship, reverberation must be carefully
controlled.
Any architect who knows anything about acoustics will hire a good acoustic
consultant for any church or other large space. And the opposite is
also true: Any architect who doesn’t hire a good acoustic consultant
for these spaces thereby demonstrates his incompetence. Effective, high-quality
sound systems can often be made invisible if the consultant and the
architect work together.
Jim Brown is a principal of the Audio Systems Group Inc., a 16-year-old
Chicago-based consulting firm specializing in the design of sound systems
for churches, performance spaces, stadiums and arenas. He can be reached
at jim@audiosystemsgroup.com.
© 2000, Intertec Publishing, A Primedia Company All Rights Reserved
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