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Martin Audio MLA loudspeakers at NC State Fair 2014. Image courtesy of Martin Audio.
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Meyer Sound Mina Compact Curvilinear Array Loudspeakers were recently used on the Kutless tour and installed at Yuong-Sang Presbyterian Church, Horsham, Penn.
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Martin Audio MLA Compact Loudspeakers supported Newsboys at a recent stop in Raleigh, N.C.
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Tim O'Neill, production manager and FOH engineer (left) and Phil Osborn, system tech and monitor engineer, Kutless.
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Martin's Omniline loudspeakers were installed at First Baptist Church, St. Paul, Minn.
To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a loudspeaker is a loudspeaker is a loudspeaker. But does that equation change depending upon whether the loudspeaker is being used for worship or secular purposes? In some ways, yes, in that the loudspeaker may have more applications to address in the former mission, as well as economic and cultural contexts that have to be acknowledged. In other words, a loudspeaker is a loudspeaker is a loudspeaker, but, well, it's complicated.
For instance, most touring sound systems have a few key criteria, such as SPL power and coverage. But put a typical Christian rock band in between the line array hangs and a few other criteria become equally critical.
“I certainly looked for SPL and coverage patterns when I was working as a tour sound mixer, as I would have for any band or artist,” says Greg Klimetz, today the production manager and technical director at Hillcrest Church in Pensacola, Fla., and previously FOH mixer on the road for Big Daddy Weave, the David Crowder Band and Todd Agnew. “But I also had to keep another critical thing in mind for that decision: speech intelligibility. Ministry is part of what bands do, and they have to be able to be clearly heard and understood when speaking from the stage.”
Klimetz says that same combination of musical and spoken-word robustness is just as critical when it comes to installed sound systems, particularly in churches that employ loud, contemporary worship music. “You're not going to have two different PA systems in the sanctuary, one for music and one for the sermon,” he says. “One system has to be able to deliver both of those purposes.”
The Great Divide
Two major delineations of system type are line array and point-source designs, and passive and active (powered) loudspeakers. These two topics can and have had entire books written about them, and decisions about them have to be based on macro factors such as architecture and budgets, so here we'll simply acknowledge them. But understand: these are fundamental issues.
Simply put, point-source speaker system designs offer broad coverage from a few linear points. The design is popular in large environments, such as college football stadiums, where they can propagate high SPL over long throws. What point-source designs aren't as good at—and line arrays are—is at directing sound. That's especially important in houses of worship, which often have highly reflective walls and floors. Line array designs can better channel sound away from those surfaces and onto the audience seating areas. That's why the majority of loudspeaker systems installed in churches and other houses of worship these days are line arrays.
"What we’re finding is that when the bottom end isn’t there, audiences notice…. "
Greg Klimetz
Technical Director, Hillcrest Church, Pensacola, FL.
Passive loudspeakers are those that use amplifiers located elsewhere in the system, such as in racks in the rear of a building, while the speakers themselves are hung or flown above. So-called active, or self-powered speakers have an integrated amplifier built into the enclosure, with the speaker and amp installed as a unit. Passive speakers are less expensive than powered ones, but will sometimes require long cable runs between amplifier and speaker, which can result in some signal attenuation, depending on the distances involved. Active loudspeakers are more expensive but the speaker and amplifier are always going to be perfectly matched to each other.
In all cases, these fundamental decisions should be made carefully and in conjunction with the AV systems integrator you've chosen.
Basic Choices
But most of the criteria needed to make informed decisions about loudspeakers are not dependent upon a particular denomination or anything other than what the system needs to accomplish and what the environment is that it needs to do it in. Chris “Sully” Sullivan, who toured for years with leading Christian music artists like Jaci Velasquez and Point of Grace and is now an applications engineer at PA manufacturer L-Acoustics, says the most basic categories of loudspeaker applications are those used for touring and those intended for permanent installation. For the former, the sound system will need to accommodate many different types of rooms, such as halls, theaters and clubs—what Sullivan refers to as “flexible geometries.” For the latter, the speakers must be matched to the type of space they'll be installed in.
System size needs to be considered, and esthetics plays a part in this. “For touring, are there always hang points or is it ground support sometimes?” he asks. “How much truck space have I been allowed? For installed speakers, are there video screens or other visual/scenic components that can't be blocked? Does the pastor or celebrant hate to see speakers or want to see lots of them?”
The choice equation moves back closer to the unique need of houses of worship when budgets are considered, however. “Is the church only reinforcing their house choir and praise and worship band plus pastor mic, or do they need to respond to technical riders too?” Sullivan asks. “If they only need the system for in-house produced events and services, then they may consider a lower-price alternative, especially if the church relies on volunteers. If they promote concerts by national touring artists, or are used as a venue for outside promoters, then the extra cost of a more expensive rig could save them money in the long term.”
Touring systems need to be evaluated on a number of particular criteria, including weight (for transport and for rigging purposes) and ease of set up. But when it comes to cost there are some key areas to keep in mind. For instance, certain higher end loudspeaker brands require the use of only their proprietary amplified controllers. This makes the likelihood of a rig in [different locations] sounding consistent much more likely than if a manufacturer allows end users to mix and match DSP and amplifiers. This typically also comes with an increase in cost. In the end, you'll pay a premium for performance, but the good news is that the extremely competitive landscape that the loudspeaker business, with so many brands on the market, offers a lot of choices, with good performance available at reasonable prices, both for touring and installed systems.
Joe Sidoti, tech director at Crossroads Christian Church in Corona, Calif., recommends establishing the required coverage pattern a given space needs, using a measurement system such as EASE software (Enhanced Acoustic Simulator for Engineers), then applying those measurements to the specifications of various loudspeaker enclosures. (The enclosure's form factor plays a significant role in dispersion and directionality characteristics.) That will usually result in a manageable range of brands and models that can then be ranked by price and other factors. “Then you can set up a good-better-best scenario,” he explains. “Even if you let price be the most determining factor, there are basic systems out there that can still give you adequate performance. The key thing is to make sure the coverage of the room is there,” he adds, noting that he recently undertook a substantial repositioning of the church's PA system to boost coverage of certain seating areas (a process he whimsically dubs “redemptive re-engineering”).
But the singularity of the house-of-worship (HOW) sector comes to the fore here once again. Generally speaking, the choice of a brand or a model can often come down simply to the preference of the touring or staff front-of house (FOH) mixer, but churches will usually see a procession of volunteer operators over the useful lifetime of a sound system. Therefore, ease of use—simplicity of operation, user-friendliness of the graphical user interface (GUI), etc.—has to be taken into account. This phenomenon has actually been integrated into the design by some manufacturers, who have purposely engineered simplicity of use into their designs, a smart move given the size of the HOW market.
On The Down Low
As audiences of all types become more accustomed to experiencing more low-frequency energy (LFE), church audio specialists are going to have to become more adept at choosing subwoofers for their touring and installed sound systems. “We're seeing subs now in places that we didn't see even a few years ago,” says Klimetz, who chose Danley TH-118 subs hung in a center cluster between the left and right hangs of Hillcrest Church's Nexo Geo-12 PA system, and included TH-115 subs with the Danley array system that recently went into the church's new satellite location 12 miles away. “What we're finding is that when the bottom end isn't there, audiences notice that now,” he says.
While many full-range loudspeakers have excellent frequency response down well below 100 Hz, the fact is that separate subwoofers are now expected to be part of church sound systems in all but the smallest churches. Having dedicated subs will improve the sound of live and prerecorded music, and the ubiquity of them means there are plenty of good choices at affordable prices.
A speaker is a speaker is a speaker, yes, but the technical nuances and broader range of categories and choices can require a lot more research, but ultimately will result in a much better match for each house of worship's needs.
Dan Daley is a journalist and author who specializes in the confluence of business and technology. He lives in New York and Nashville, Tenn.
