Houses of worship place a great deal of emphasis on their sanctuary sound systems, rightly so to ensure speech intelligibility and music fidelity. But it’s worth remembering that it all starts with a microphone.
“There are a ton of variables when it comes to choosing microphones, and we’re there to help churches make sense of them,” says Robbie Starkey, principal consultant at the CSD Group, an AV systems consultant that works with churches.
Worship styles & budgets
Though the main demarcation in the microphone domain is perceived as wired and wireless, Starkey says other decisions need to be addressed even before that one. “The first things we’ll look at are worship styles and budgets,” he explains. An emphasis on contemporary music usually argues for an array of higher-end microphones, with dynamic types for percussive instruments and condensers for quieter ones and for vocals. Also, how music stages are monitored plays into this: louder environments that use wedge monitors will need microphones with good off-axis noise rejection, to prevent feedback.
"[Even before decisions on wired and wireless] ... the first things we’ll look at are worship styles and budgets." Robbie Starkey, Principal Consultant, CSD Group, New Haven, IN
Budgets will determine the models of microphones that will be chosen, but all the major brands that Starkey and other consultants refer to, including Shure, Sennheiser, Audio-Technica and Audix, offer the equivalent of “good, better, best” options, although Starkey is quick to caution that sonic quality is in large part a subjective matter. “Whatever sounds good to you from those brands is just fine,” he says. “Each one will have a great handheld wired dynamic microphone for under $100, like Shure’s SM58, and plenty to choose from that cost hundreds more, like Shure’s KSM9,” which retails for around $700.
Wireless world
At that point, Starkey says, he’ll assess the needs for wired and wireless mics. Wireless systems hold the most allure for churches and other users, and they have numerous practical benefits, such as making very large stage platforms more manageable, and enabling larger bands, orchestras, and choirs. (And you generally don’t have to ask most pastors twice which they prefer.)
However, wireless systems have been burdened with new challenges in recent months, most notably the elimination of most of the 600-MHz part of the spectrum, part of the frequency sweet spot for wireless microphones, because of how well it allows RF to propagate while still maintaining full tonal range. New wireless system options use a much broader range of the remaining spectrum, from the 500-MHz range on up through the 1.9- and 2.4-GHz range.
The recent RF reallocation is more complex than most church staff can manage, says Kevin Potts, a consultant at Coherent Design in Las Vegas, an AV consultancy. “Even small churches now have multiple channels of wireless, and mid-sized churches will have 8-12 channels, so the potential for interference is increasing,” he explains. “Anyone operating that many channels needs frequency-coordination services, and the need just goes up the more dense their areas are in RF.” Those services, however, are generally only needed once, in the decision phase of the purchase process, and most consultants and qualified design-build companies can provide that.
“Anyone operating that many channels needs frequency-coordination services, and the need just goes up the more dense their areas are in RF.” Kevin Potts, Coherent Design, Las Vegas, NV
Wireless audio holds an allure for many pastors and worship leaders, and Potts understands that, but he also encourages house-of-worshipo clients to stick with wired microphones to a larger extent than they might otherwise.
“Wireless microphones are great for a lot of reasons, but if you have a 10-piece praise group that pretty much stays in one place on stage, using wired microphones on them will save money and possibly a headache or two, and definitely provide better-sounding audio,” he contends. “If we could put wires on everything, we would, but it’s not unusual to see stages with a combination of wired and wireless microphones.”
“Wireless microphones are great for a lot of reasons, but if you have a 10-piece praise group that pretty much stays in one place on stage, using wired microphones on them will save money and possibly a headache or two...." Kevin Potts, Coherent Design, Las Vegas, NV
Those new RF challenges arrive at the same time that churches are upping their individual channel counts, as Sunday and other services add more music and other audio elements. In addition to recommending larger wireless microphone systems, Starkey also specifies more distributed antenna systems, which not only help manage larger channel counts but also help them dodge the increasingly dense RF environment that all spaces have become.
“Everywhere, everyone has a pretty powerful radio transmitter in their pocket,” he says, referring to the ubiquity of cell phones. “Once you’re past four [channels of wireless], you need to have external high-gain antennas to crush through all the RF now in the room, especially if the microphone rack is away from the stage.”
“Everywhere, everyone has a pretty powerful radio transmitter in their pocket, [referring to the ubiquity of cell phones]. Once you’re past four [channels of wireless], you need to have external high-gain antennas to crush through all the RF now in the room...." Kevin Potts, Coherent Design, Las Vegas, NV
Starkey points out that in addition to handheld microphones, church users, like theatrical ones, are increasingly using wireless headset systems. He’ll poll the pastors about their preferences but suggests always having a couple of those on hand. Headsets also will allow users to pick other brands of microphone capsules for their booms, broadening the range of choices to include Countryman, DPA Microphones and others.
Make room for networking
Potts says he’s seeing more and more networked audio implementation in churches. As he indicated with RF microphones, he recommends that they use the services of a professional, in this case an IT pro, to program the network initially.
“They say they’re plug and play, but networks really aren’t when you’re first setting one up,” he says. “You need someone who knows how to program the managed switches on the network.”
Potts says while Dante has become the most widely used network protocol for the AV market, more manufacturers are making AVB native to their operating systems, including amplifier makers Bose Professional and Crown.
So while microphones are the starting point for audio in any house of worship, Potts notes, getting them right early on takes some effort.
