So you’re building a new church. Or, you are remodeling an existing one. At any rate, you’ve been elected the direct liaison between the facility and the audio/video/ lighting expert(s) that will be providing you with a system design.
The problem is, after meeting with several firms (and receiving several designs), you’re a little confused, to put it lightly. In fact, you’re so confounded by the information in front of you that it’s reminiscent of the last time you did your taxes.
It’s a common phenomenon: a church requests an A/V design, an audiovisual firm submits one, and then the church can’t honestly determine whether or not this is the system for them.
Art Yeap, director at Novo Group, a consulting agency in San Francisco, California, believes that one must give in order to receive. If you want the design that is right for your church, you had better be willing to give out a lot of information before the designer ever sits down at the drawing board.
“Before we even get to that design phase, we want to know – and observe, if we can – where they are now. What is the church doing now, and where do they want to be three to five years from now in terms of worship, program, and format?” Yeap describes. “Do they plan to change their style of worship? When do they want their services, and who do they want to attend them? And, for a lack of a better word, who is their “competitor”? Who is the local draw, and why? What do people go there to see?” Churches should also decide what they want to do in the future, as these criteria will come into play.
Bill Thrasher, Sr., president and principal consultant at Thrasher Design Group, Inc. in Kennesaw, Georgia, urges technical directors to treat the A/V experts as they would an architect. “Architects expect the owner of a building to be very interactive in writing a program that details what they want. Then the architect responds to that. We should be doing the same thing with TDs and designers,” he declares. “The technical director also needs to produce some kind of document that details what they want to do in order for the designer to come up with an appropriate system. It doesn’t have to be technical; it just has to outline what they want the system to do, the problems that they are trying to solve, and the capabilities that they want in a year or two when the system is finished.”
Ask and You Shall While every church should provide a lengthy list of needs and wants to the designer they enlist, they are also entitled to make a few inquiries. John Fuqua, director of the commercial sales and design team at All Pro Sound in Pensacola, Florida, suggests that these questions will help to get the process started off on the right foot: What are your qualifications for systems of this size and do you have references available? What is your approach to acoustical design with respect to creating the best audio system environment? What is the procedure for your system designs? How do you approach getting the proper infrastructure in place to support the system? What data do you have to support your design? What is your guarantee for the quality of the finished installation? |
One of the biggest challenges in designing audio-visual systems is striking that balance between a design that goes too far, and one that isn’t elaborate enough. Again, this can be avoided if the church’s needs ring loud and clear before the design process is begun. “We always look at what they have now, what the operators and the technical directors have in terms of technical knowledge, what the staffing situation is as well as their proposal for staffing in the future,” Yeap explains. “We look at how many attendees actually go to the church, what their annual budget is, and what type of budget they plan to have. They might have the best system in the world, and no maintenance budget. All of this helps us to determine whether we are over-designing or under-designing a system.”
Some churches opt to seek second opinions once a design has been submitted – someone to vet the documents to ensure that the system will deliver the required elements. Depending on whom you ask, this practice is either completely acceptable, or unnecessary, if you did your research in the first place.
Yeap suggests that churches considering this approach it as one would a second opinion in the medical field: “We would hope to have some input on who they would go to. It’s sort of like a second opinion for doctors: you usually ask around, and you would also ask your doctor for some referring physicians,” he illustrates. “We would refer them to the people that we respect, and who have a mutual relationship with us. Otherwise, they may go to someone who isn’t knowledgeable, or who may not know about the church market at all.”
Thrasher refers to these sessions as peer reviews – a process he has been invited to join on a number of occasions. “I have been asked to come in many times when a church has received five proposals, and they can’t decide which one is worth buying,” he recalls. “So they call me to determine which one is appropriate for them. A peer review is probably a reasonably safe thing to do at times. Be very careful that the person you are hiring to do your peer review is not just another salesman that wants to get in and take the job away from someone else.”
Neal Watson, general manager of Maxx Technology in Franklin, Tennessee, offers this opinion: “Checks and balances can be good, but sometimes too many cooks spoil the broth,” he notes. “Sometimes an outside review can be beneficial. Other times, consultants bring new agendas to the table. We believe a better approach is for the church to do their homework upfront, before hiring a design-build firm. Ask questions, check references, and visit job sites.”
Most importantly, try to get a feel for whether the company really “gets” what your church is all about. “Determine if the firm you believe is most qualified to do the job really understands your church. This is critical. There are several good audio/video/lighting design/build firms working in the U.S. house-of-worship market, but a church should make sure the firm they hire truly understands their church – not only its demographics, its psychographics, and its mission; but the church’s heart and passion as well,” Watson adds.
Thrasher also suggests that when dealing with a company, be aware of who is actually fighting for your cause. “If you are dealing with a design/build firm, who within that firm is really doing the design, and what is that person’s – or that small team’s – real track record?” he ponders. “You need to check their references. The question becomes: whom are you going to trust? How do you find a firm that won’t over-do it, or under-do it? It comes down to the person, and not the equipment.”
To attract the right person to the job, it’s absolutely necessary to know what you want, and communicate it well. Thrasher suggests that churches who are merely considering a construction project should develop wish lists far in advance in an effort to include as many of their needs and desires as possible. “Every time they see something that is good, write it down. Do the same thing every time you see something that you want to avoid,” he instructs. “Have some ideas in your head of what you want and what you don’t want, along with some dreams of where you see your future. And think about it for a year or two; not for a month.”
