Audio Problem Common to Houses of Worship

Almost every church, temple, synagogue, or other House of Worship shares the common audio problem of intelligibility. Yet, most Houses of Worship throw their money at more electronics instead of addressing the primary problems with their acoustics.

The primary need of any church or House of Worship is to deliver their message. Therefore if the congregation can't understand the worship leader, for whatever reason, then that need is unfulfilled. Emphasis is usually placed on the electronics of the sound system to try and correct the problem, and little attention is paid to the acoustics in the space.

The acoustics of the room should be the primary environmental aspect to be addressed. Why? If the acoustic problems are fixed first, then the electronics will have a much easier time delivering a clean message.

The most common sound issue is the long decay time in these large and beautiful spaces. As the worship leader has speaks the first word, the sound waves bounce all around the room, off the walls, off the windows, off the ceiling, and every other reflective surface. But as the worship leader begins to speak the second word, the reflected energy from the first word is still arriving at the members of the congregation. The result of this is that the congregation will have difficulty hearing the second word, and the next word, and so on. The longer the decay time, the more garbled the message.

So how to you address this common audio problem in your church? Contact an audio professional (and you should), but first understand that some of the audio energy should be removed from the room. Acoustical panels, heavy drapes, ceiling tiles, and more can help alleviate this problem by absorbing the direct sound wave and preventing it from being reflected towards the congregation.

How much acoustic treatment is needed? Every House of Worship, church and temple is different and the approach should be tailored to the specific problems of the space. However, roughly figure that about 25% of the available wall space should be treated.

Does this mean that the walls will be covered in unsightly materials? No, not at all! A talented acoustic designer will select materials that exemplify the overall message of the sanctuary, yet be able to remove enough of the original reflections so that the message arrives clean and intelligible.

If you need an experienced consultant to fix this problem in your House of Worship, then please feel free to drop us line, we'd love to hear from you!

The Speed of Sound

The easy answer to the question "What is the speed of sound" is 1126 feet per second, or 343 meters per second. The full answer is a little more complicated.

Typically, the speed of sound is measured in dry air at 68 degrees Farenheit at sea level. Here in Central Florida, that at least makes on part of the equation simple! As the temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure change, so does the speed.

How does this help us in the audio world? Usually in Houses of Worship, there are many acoustical problems. The use of broadband and low frequency absorbers are used to remove some of the acoustic energy in a room. As you know more of the problems in your particular room, you can pinpoint frequencies and design solutions to nearly pinpoint these problem frequencies. The greater the accuracy with your treatments, the more natural the sound that the congregation hears.

For example, suppose you are having feedback in the 1Khz range from the podium mics. By using a calculator, you will find that the Speed of Sound (1126ft/sec) divided by 1000 equals 1.126 ft. Lower frequencies have a longer wavelength, higher frequencies have a shorter wavelength. But now that we know that we have a wavelength of 1.126ft, we can create acoustical absorbers that use this dimension. I would suggest using absorption blocks of a least this length and width. As for the depth, the depth of 1.126ft is probably unpractical, so choose the deepest depth that would work in the room. How many of these panels should you use? As many as you can, but you probably won't hear a difference until you cover at least 25% of the back wall.

Hopefully this example helps, and gives you a practical use of the speed of sound. If you need help with your House of Worship, and you're in the Central Florida and Orlando area, please drop us line and we'll be happy to help you out!

Have a wonderful day.

Central Florida Area

We love Central Florida! Central Florida, comprising the area around route I4 from Tampa to Daytona, is a wonderful area to raise a family. This would be the counties of Orange, Osceola, Polk, Lake, Seminole, Volusia, Brevard, and Flagler.

This is the most visited area in the country, with theme parks to beaches, and plenty of entertainment available. Centered around Orlando, the City Beautiful, there is something available for everyone no matter what your tastes. Whether a stroll around Lake Eola, or a night at Downtown Disney or Citywalk, you'll find something to suit your tastes.

Are you a Recording Studio, House of Worship, Church, Hotel, or other multimedia-intensive organization in need of help in this area? Then please send us a note, we'd love to get in touch with you. Proaudionet Consulting can provide all services to fix your audio problems.

Services We Provide

Proaudionet Consulting can provide any consulting services required for the Studio, Recording, Live Sound and House of Worship.

Engineering
Mixing
Troubleshooting
Training

We specialize in coming in 'after-the-fact' to fix your problems. Especially prevalent in the House of Worship market where audio systems are installed and then the original engineer moves on, we can come in, inspect your system, provide a working diagram, and then train your current engineer on how to use it.

Send us an email today at proaudionet@gmail.com, we'd love to hear from you!

Welcome to Proaudionet Consulting

Welcome to Proaudionet Consulting! We provide audio consulting services in the Central Florida area. With over 25 years of experience in the audio, pro audio, lighting, video, live sound and recording fields, we can help you. If you are a studio, church, temple, or House of Worship, please send us an email and we'll get right back to you.

Have a wonderful day!