Photo by Gustavo Fring: https://www.pexels.com/photo/construction-worker-explaining-blueprints-6285151/
At my church, we have been part of numerous construction projects in my 14-plus years on staff, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have a seat at the table during the design and implementation process for nearly all of them. This has afforded plenty of opportunities to learn from mistakes and continue to fine-tune a process over time.
With so many trades being involved in a building’s design, there’s a lot that can fall through the cracks...
Many churches, though, might be fortunate to really only have one notable construction project in a generation, whether that’s a new building for a primary location, or maybe even a satellite campus. In those instances, when it legitimately may be a “once in a lifetime” opportunity, it’s even more important to make sure the project gets built the right way, since there’s no guarantee that the “money train” will ever pull back into the station down the road to fix things that may not have been handled right the first time.
Several years ago for Church Production, I wrote articles about the importance of choosing an AVL integrator (and how to navigate that process) and even some big-picture concepts to remember during a construction project, like thinking for the future (not just what you need now).
Keep in mind that while architects and other contractors may have done big projects before, this is likely the first time they’ve ever done a big project for *you*. So while it’s important to lean on their expertise in certain areas to at least develop an initial design, it’s critical that you ask plenty of questions to make sure that your wants and needs are being addressed.
Don’t just take suggestions from consultants, integrators, or contractors blindly. Go somewhere you can see and hear a system in action and/or request demos from manufacturers.
Now I’d like to provide a list of actual, tactile things that have to be considered during the design and installation process to ensure that you and your team are planning effectively.
- AVL equipment demos: There’s a lot riding on purchasing an AVL system in a new space. Don’t just take suggestions from consultants, integrators, or contractors blindly. Go somewhere you can see and hear a system in action and/or request demos from manufacturers. Nine times out of ten, they’ll be willing to bring in equipment for you to test.
- Electrical: Architects and electrical engineers (EEs) may put stuff on drawings based on industry recommendations or code requirements. But until you talk with them, they have no idea what you actually need for your project specifically. This is a critical reason why you should get an AVL integrator involved in the project as early as possible: to ensure that high-voltage requirements are accounted for when it comes to theatrical lighting, LED, powered PAs, FOH and video production booth locations, etc.
- Conduit: Similar to the electrical drawings, architects and EEs will put things on paper as part of their base bid or scope. But chances are it won’t be enough. The diameter of the conduit may not take into account the gauge of wiring (or number of cables) that has to get pulled through it or the distance a low-voltage contractor may have to pull that cable. For budget’s sake, they’ll probably even under-spec the number of conduits you need. Plan for the future. There’s a chance that anything laid in the slab could get cracked at some point and be unusable, whether because it collapsed or filled with water. For anything going under the floor, it’s wise to add extra conduits to allow for what-if scenarios or future usage. This applies not just in equipment rooms but also in the main room for camera or confidence monitor floor pockets, and even at the sound booth.
Don’t design the structural load of the building for what you’re doing now; design it for what you might do ten years from now.
Additionally, once you get into a space and start living in it, without having accurate as-built drawings readily available, it might be hard to remember which conduit goes where. After the electrical contractor (EC) installs the conduit, consider using a marker to write on the conduit where it terminates so anyone curious in the future will immediately know where it goes. Also, consider writing the footage on the conduit; that may make it easier to spec future projects since you can skip a step of having to measure the distance.
- Structural and rigging requirements: If at all possible, don’t design the structural load of the building for what you’re doing now; design it for what you might do ten years from now. Maybe you can only afford projection at the moment, but you know you want to go to LED walls at some point. Make sure that weight is factored into the load capabilities of the roof. Likewise, if you want to have the ability to fly signage or lights in your lobby or common spaces to help promote big events, make sure you consider that as well, perhaps not just in weight rating, but also with some extra Unistrut to hang from. It’s a good idea to have extra power available in your lobby ceilings as well, for this very reason.
- HVAC: Ensure that equipment rooms (not just for AVL, but also for IT gear) will have plenty of air conditioning options and that those rooms have their own controls (that aren’t linked with other spaces, especially the main auditorium). Additionally, make sure you have a good understanding of how any possible sensors in the air ducts will interface with the fire alarm system. Hazers can easily trip alarms due to the particles injected in the ducts and detected with sensors. Understanding how the airflow in and around your main auditorium will work is crucial.
- Fire alarms: As just noted, many air conditioning systems are designed to detect possible smoke particles and shut down so hazardous air isn’t circulated throughout the building. However, most alarm panels have the ability to put certain sensors or zones in a “bypass” mode that can allow them to note an irregularity but not shut the system down. It’s critical to note that every fire jurisdiction has different rules and protocols for what to do in these situations, such as creating a logbook that shows the times that a panel was placed in and out of bypass mode and scheduling a person to walk through the building on “fire watch” duty so they can detect possible problems in areas where the alarms are bypassed. Failing to take these steps in conjunction with local authorities can subject an organization to fines and even legal issues with your insurance companies.
Electrical and mechanical rooms can not be used as storage.
- Ceiling coordination and trim height: With so many trades being involved in a building’s design, there’s a lot that can fall through the cracks and fail to be coordinated. In the main room, you’ll potentially have structural steel, air ducts, house lights, theatrical lighting bars, speakers, projectors, LED walls, set designs, acoustic curtains, and fire alarms all vying for space in (or suspended from) the ceiling. This all has to be coordinated ahead of time instead of during an install. Do any of them hang so low they obstruct sight lines from the top row of bleacher seats? Does the ductwork hang lower than the house lights in some areas and create shadows? In the lobby and other distributed spaces, you might have signage, security cameras, TVs, and wireless access points. Make sure you overlap your drawings to note any potential issues so they can be mitigated during design.
- Telecom: Very few people actually use copper phone lines anymore in new construction. But everyone needs internet and the ability to reach the outside world. Instead of using phone lines for systems that require a connection to others (like fire and burglar panels and phones in elevators) consider shifting to LTE cell-based options, which tend to be notably cheaper on a monthly basis. For actual internet access, consider all of the systems that will pull bandwidth (like office computers, copiers and printers, kids check-in systems, Production streaming systems, etc.) and ensure you have enough bandwidth to provide for all of those areas simultaneously.
- Network management: In many churches, there may not be a dedicated IT person on staff, so those duties will either get outsourced or lumped in with all other technical requirements for a production staffer. In a new space, consider everything that will pull on the network prior to actually designing it and installing the hardware. For instance, having free wifi for guests can create a network bottleneck that affects a live stream without appropriate QoS procedures in place. Also, having a Dante audio-over-IP network share the same hardware with other enterprise traffic can be a potential problem waiting to happen due to Dante’s multicast requirements, so consider separate hardware for audio gear and include that in a base budget.
The sound booth should not be off-center, and ideally, it would also be in front of any delay speakers. It should never be in an enclosed room. Also, don't put it directly up against the back wall of the room, since that can create a bass trap that affects the engineer's ability to hear accurately.
- Exterior device coordination: In many of our earlier projects, we didn’t properly talk through all of the devices that would be mounted on the outside of the building, and that led to issues. We had security cameras whose views were blocked by downspouts and lights outside entrances whose coverage was impacted by wall-mounted speakers. It’s good to compare exterior elevations from all trades so that all devices can be reviewed concurrently.
- Distributed audio and video: Where will it need to go? Will there be exterior speakers so people can hear music as they walk in, and will that be getting the feed from the main room or something different? Where will TVs be in the lobby and/or café? Will speakers in those areas be mounted in the ceiling and part of a 70v system, or will directional speakers be mounted above each individual TV so people gathering in front of that display can hear more clearly? What about a nursing mother’s room? Kids check-in area? An overflow space? Restrooms? Will speakers in these areas be zoned for individual control or will they all be tied together? The same thing for displays: will they all see the same thing or will the content be routable?
- Storage: So as not to offend the dear folks at OSHA, I have to remind you that electrical and mechanical rooms can’t be used as storage. But if there’s one thing a church never has enough of, it’s storage, especially for AV gear. There has to be a place to store spare equipment, consumable inventory (like batteries and gaff tape), and even extra drumsticks and heads. That room could be used for other things also, but there needs to be some sort of space defined in this way on the drawings.
- FOH and back wall design: Architects love sticking the sound booth in random places because the back middle of the room really affects the symmetry and feng shui of the room. But the booth shouldn’t be off-center, and ideally it would also be in front of any potential ring of delay speakers. It should *never* be in an enclosed room. It should also not be directly up against the back wall of the room, since that can create a bass trap that affects mixing ability. And speaking of the back wall, many churches will mount a clock and/or confidence monitor on the back wall so that talent on the stage can see it clearly without having to look down. If this is part of your plan, ensure you have enough power and network connectivity for those devices. The back wall can also be a great place to mount a PTZ camera to provide an “eye in the sky” view of the room that feeds to an enclosed production/video booth that may be backstage or in another area. But if a camera is mounted to a standard sheetrock wall, it will likely vibrate due to the low-end. Consider a shock-absorbent mount, or you can use a down-pole from the ceiling or a post mount that’s anchored directly to the concrete floor.
This is by no means a fully inclusive list of things that have to be taken into account in a new build. But these are several things that tend to get overlooked or neglected, only to be noticed too late in construction (or after move-in) to do anything about.
Hopefully, you can take this info and apply it to a current or future situation and avoid any of the pain points experienced by myself or others who haven’t had this info.
