Imagine you walk into your committee meeting and to your amazement you find that they have approved your suggestion to seek bids for a new sound and video system. You leave the meeting excited and jazzed! Finally all of you problems will go away. No more buzz, no more hum, no more having to dim the lights and shut all the shades just to barley make out what you are projecting on the screen! You figure by next Sunday all of your frustrations will be gone. The next morning you immediately look in the yellow pages and see a large ad for Kevorkian Audio Services. You call and talk with Blair (secretly known and Dr “Audio” Death) He informs you that he has on his shelf 2 of the latest greatest funkiest speakers that will install in any room and deliver equal sound pressure and all frequencies in perfect time using the all new sonic accelerator processor. To top it off he can have his guy there Friday to do the install. Then to seal the deal (or your fate) He throws out a price that is well within what your committee said you could spend. Bingo we have a Deal! Blair and his hatchet men show up on Friday at 4:00 pm. You get out of work at 5:00 and excitedly head over to see the progress that has been made. To your surprise Blair and crew are walking around looking. They haven't started a thing. You question, “What's up”? The reply…. “Well you didn't tell me this was a 60x 100 room with a 25' peaked ceiling”. Your response, “You did not ask… and aren't most churches like this?” Blair responds with a dissertation on the sonic accelerator and how and when it works. You become extremely confused and just as you are about to say hang it. Blair adds “but if we add the feedback optimizer controller (FOC) it will override the sonic accelerator speed differentiation based on frequency and it should still work out just as we planned”. Okay deal still on and the FOC was not that expensive of and add… Needless to say this continues the system never works right and you spend way more that the committee approved. In fact you are so embarrassed you donate the $ difference so that no one will know of you blunder….other than they hear it every week!
What should you have done?
When deciding that it is time to upgrade the old sound system there are many options as to how to proceed. The first choice should be to decide to hire a design build contractor or a consultant to design the system. Needless to say there are some very bad design build contractors and some very bad consultants. However there are also some very good ones and well. My general rule (variables such as acoustics and complexity of the system also play into this decision) is that if the project is under $100,000.00 and in a room under 1000 seats I would explore a good design build contractor. Most design build firms have good experience in these size rooms.
You also have the choice of using the local music store. In general unless the music store has a specific division that focuses on installation and has a strong proven track record. I would steer clear. Many of the poor designs and implementations that I see are from good intentioned “guitar shops” that have a great passion and understanding of gear and technology, but do not understand the laws of physics and just how difficult it can be to install a successful sound system in a larger room.
What does a consultant do?
A good consultant will first and foremost find out who you are, what your ministry is like, future plans for the ministry and current challenges you are facing. The consultant should take time to interview the sound technicians, musicians, worship leader and senior pastor to get a good understanding of your churches over all needs. He/She should also take a good physical inventory of what equipment you already own and also your experience level with sound equipment. In addition blueprints and field measurements should be gathered to aid in the design of the system. After the consultant has gathered this information. The issue of budget must be decided. Often a church will bring in a consultant, paint a picture of all that they need (which totals $500,000.00) and then proceed to inform the consultant that the building committee allocated $100,000.00 for that project with a 10% contingency just in case. No matter how large the system or how big the ministry the $ amount always matters. The best case scenario is to have the consultant help guide and establish the budget. However this happens all too infrequently as the building committee is concerned about so many facets of a project that overlook or will not allocate time to looking at the technical aspects. After establishing the budget the consultant should be prepared to do the first round of design. The design should be based on using tools like EASE (computer design simulation software that help predict many aspects of how a sound system will perform in a give space). The consultant should provide and equipment list as well as a descriptive narrative of how the system should perform. For example:
System Operational concept
The system shall be a left/center/right cross-matrixed solution. The front of house LCR mixing board shall be able to be operated from the control booth as well as the floor position. All connects and disconnects shall be made using multi pin connectors. There shall be a separate wireless rack and a separate effects rack to be connected to the house mix console. It is the contractor's responsibility to provide the appropriate connection cable.
The main system shall be a left center right speaker system. The left and right clusters shall be vertical line arrays with the center cluster being a horizontal array.
The Line arrays shall consist of six (6) boxes each with a matching sub woofer for each the left and right arrays.
The center cluster shall consist of four (4) 30-degree horizontal coverage boxes arrayed to give 120 degrees of coverage. The center two (2) boxes shall receive center channel information only with the stage left box receiving a mix of stage right and center and the stage right box receiving a mix of stage left and center. The center cluster speakers shall utilize the same component drivers and/or have the same power handling capacity as the line arrays to provide SPL and sonic qualities that are comparable to the line arrays.
In addition the consultant should provide all the information needed for the other trades on the project. For example, electrical, mechanical (how noisy will the HVAC system be?) and Structural (where and how will the speakers be hung).
All of this information needs to be reviewed and then coordinated with the building committee. Once the design is approved and fits into the projected budget. The document can be distributed for bids from contractors.
A couple of notes here. I have often seen where a good intentioned committee kills or hurts the design as the consultant is constantly second guessed. This often comes from the committee member who has a brother in law that installs phone and paging systems. (or some sort of technology which qualifies the brother in-law to be more informed or than the consultant) The conversation usually goes like this. “ Well my brother in law Bob who is an expert in sound was on the internet and has told me about the new sonic accelerator. The one that actually speeds up the sound so that every seat in the house receives sound at the exact same time and level. At this point the consultant becomes irritated as he knows in order to accomplish this you would break God's laws of physics. From here the relationship starts to deteriorate as the committee divides between those who believe the consultant and those who believe the internet finding by the brother in-law.
You hired and paid the consultant for his expertise. If you have done your home work and hired the right consultant. Trust his advice. This is not to say that every consultant is perfect and every committee member an idiot! Rather a good consultant would be in tune with the committee and the committee may challenge but will trust the consultant.
Finally, this goes out for bid. This can be another place where politics get heavily involved. Inevitably someone on the committee knows someone who puts entertainment systems in homes and should be allowed to bid on the project. So now you have the sonic accelerator brother in-law and the friend who installs esoteric audio bidding on the job not having a clue how to actually do it. I recommend that the committee and the consultant create a short list of 4-5 contractors that will be invited to bid on the project. When selecting contractors for the short list the committee should check the track records of perspective contractors and the consultant should interview the engineering staff of the ones that pass the back ground check. I am amazed at how few people actually check references. One company I know of boast on their web site a large church that they installed over 10 years ago. (the system was replaced 2 years later) The boast includes a recommendation from the minister of music (he left the church 6 months after the install). The church, (I have spoken with them) has nothing good to say about the contractor. Yet I have other churches say well we should use ABC contractor because they did the big church in town. The point here is talk to the end users… call around see if the references are still happy. Ask, are you still dealing with the same people that worked on the project? Often there has been turn over at the company and the team that did the great install at the big church is not even working there anymore. Bottom line Do your home work and use the consultant for what you hired him to do. If you have gone through the above process the rest of the project (the selection of a contractor and the installation) should go smooth.
After a contractor is awarded the project the contractor and consultant should then collaborate and insure that the system is installed to specifications. Again if you have a good relationship with the consultant and have pre-qualified the contractor this should be a very smooth process. At the end of the project the consultant will then do testing, setting and commissioning of the system. The consultant should also do initial training with the contractor present. The contractor will most likely be the party that you have the long term relationship with and they should be available when you need additional training or assistance.
An additional note here. At the time of system training you should be provided by the contractor, approved by the consultant as built drawings and close out documents. The drawings should be complete functional drawings with wire numbers and any appropriate notes about the system. The close out documents should include statement of warranty, contract and procedure information in the event of system failure and all owners' manuals of equipment installed. This step in the process is often missed and can lead to frustration a year of two down the road when something is not working right or you want to change something. I highly recommend that you do not make final payment to either the consultant of the contractor until the final drawings and close out documents are received.
What does a design build contractor do?
A design build contractor should function in much the same way as a consultant. The only difference is that he is not going to bid the project out at the end of the design (the contractor will also be the installer). I recommend that you once again do your home work and select the right contractor.
There are 4 main types of “contractors”
Music store
In general the music store is the least qualified contractor. The person on the floor at the music store has more than likely not been exposed to all the tools and products that are available in the Professional contracting arena. In addition they have probably had very little if any training in system design, safety standards, proper grounding techniques and most importantly rigging. In addition they probably do not have software tools such as EASE or Star draw to aid in the design and documentation. Finally, you know that statement, “I wish I knew then what I know now.” That usually applies greatly in this situation. The person working the music store floor does not even have a clue as to what they do not know. The will more than likely come off as confident and assure that they know all about the industry and using a contractor especially the one who’s done all the big churches is a waste because you will be paying so much more. They may even argue they will be providing the same manufactures product. Just remember Ford has made the Pinto and the F series truck and there is a big difference between the two! Also I guarantee you in matched cars (whether a pinto or a race car) a professional race car driver would put me to shame in a car race. So, unless the music store has a contracting division with all the proper tools and professional equipment lines. STAY CLEAR!
Low Voltage Contractor.
The low voltage contractor is a step in the right direction. However they may not have the expertise required to do the project. Again, unless they have a sound contracting division. These guys usually do telephones, networking, security and control systems. Their installation work is usually very good (unlike a typical music store install) However, unless they have the tools and the correct people they may not be very adept at system design. They may be good at copying the last installation that they did, but they will probably have a hard time designing a system specific to your need.
Sound Contractor
The sound contractor may be qualified to do you project. They hopefully will be qualified to at least bid on a design if you go the consultant route. When looking at the sound contractor is important to see the product lines that they carry and the type of work that they do. Are they mostly a commercial contractor doing paging and public address systems? Or are they geared towards night clubs and entertainment? Find out from their reference list and past jobs what they seem to do the most of and what type of systems they like to put in. For example if every install you visit is Brand X speakers. Guess what…. you will get brand X speakers. That may not be bad. You should just be aware of it. With the sound contractor make sure you meet the people that will work on your project. They may have a great sales person and terrible engineers and project managers, so push to meet the entire team.
System integrator
A true systems integrator should be able to take care of your design build needs. They should have multiple product lines available to them and engineers on staff that have implemented many projects like yours. It is your responsibility to check the track record and confirm that these guys are qualified. Do some research and visit their installation and most importantly talk to as many users of their systems as you can find. Again with the systems integrator meet everybody that will be on the team of your project!
How do I select who to use?!
1. Choose if you are going to use a contractor or consultant
2. Select 3-4 reputable firms to ask them to present their capabilities to you on your project. (ask around for names, visit the National Systems Contractor Association's website NSCA.org to find members in your area)
3. Meet with the firms to explain your needs. Analyze…. Do they listen? Or are they only interested in selling how great they are? Do they give input as you describe your needs…? “You may want to consider……….” or are they just taking down your ideas?
4. Set a specific date for the proposal to be turned in by. (If they do not turn in a proposal on time chances are they will not install the system on time!)
5. While you are waiting for the proposal to come back. Do your home work in finding out even more about these companies.
6. Let the companies present the proposal to you. Listen carefully to see if they can articulate how they are meeting your specific needs.
7. Evaluate the proposals based on how well the system meets your needs. If the highest price is the only one that meets your needs you need to take it. If it doesn't meet your needs you need to change your stated needs so that you can afford them.
This article is just an introduction into how to go about selecting the process and team for you next installation. However, if you go through the above steps and do your homework your next installation should be one that will last you for many years.
