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We explore the thought process that may help your church avoid expensive mistakes.
Many portable churches make the mistake of buying just enough A/V support to survive with their current size and configuration. Other churches buy more than they need to get started, but the gear they buy leaves them without flexibility in the future and loses value unnecessarily.
The first priority in buying portable equipment is to make sure that current needs are properly assessed. This involves thinking through program needs such as music ministry and the sermon's sound reinforcement, as well as any other elements. A traditional service where amplified keyboard and vocals make up the majority of the music requires a much different sound system design than a full-band contemporary situation. While assessing the requirements of the current worship style in the current room, the reality is that most portable churches have property leases of less than one year in length with the theaters, schools, or other venues from which they rent space. Some leases run month-to-month with the school or theater retaining the right to end the lease without more than one-weeks warning. This puts many portable churches in a position where they must remain flexible in every way-including their sound system. This sort of flexibility should be directly reflected in system design and gear choices; in other words, don't buy a speaker system that is unlikely to function well (because of an odd dispersion pattern for example) in multiple types of rooms.
When it comes to considering the future, it is nearly impossible to know what rooms you will be trying to cover in the years to come. However, if you tend towards speaker systems that have multiple uses, you can be assured the investment you make in them now will not be worthless later on. For example, choosing a main speaker system whose boxes can double as monitor wedges or under balcony fills can be a great way to assure their future usefulness.
Another often-missed consideration is the volunteer force you will depend upon to set the system up each week. Be sure to think through whether or not the system is too complicated either technically or mechanically (rigging for example), or whether you will have enough volunteers to set things up and tear them down in the allotted time. Speaker systems that incorporate complex rigging should be avoided in most portable church scenarios for this reason.
Another important decision to be made is whether to choose a powered or unpow- ered speaker system. A powered system is less likely to incur driver damage because the power amplifier is designed for the speaker drivers and incorporated within the box. These systems often have fewer connections and fail points, which simplify setup and increase system reliability. On the flipside, powered speakers typically weigh more than their unpowered counterparts, and require electrical power connections for each box. Also, since the amplifier is contained within the speaker box, if either component fails, the other is also unusable.
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Rob Connelly currently serves at North Wake Church in Wake Forest, NC as director of technology and communication. He is the owner of Connelly Audio, providing technology, ministry and systems consulting to churches. Rob is also a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife Ashley have two young sons.
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