by Tim Adams
Let’s start by stating the obvious; the honest answer to this question is that it depends on your space. But what does that mean? We’ll explore acoustics in a future article this year, but suffice to say that the shape, dimensions, construction materials, and amount of absorptive materials in your room have a much larger impact on meeting your needs than a speaker system so plan accordingly. However, if you’re upgrading an existing space, then you are largely stuck with what you already have in place.
There are integrators and consultants who swear by a particular system (myself included) and it’s not uncommon to receive multiple quotes that have quite different approaches and designs for your church. Understand that generally, they will recommend something they know will work based on past experience with spaces similar to yours, but it never hurts to ask questions based on your own research.
Know Your Audio Priorities
I think paramount to selecting what’s right for you is first deciding what current issues you need to solve and what your priority is for your speaker system between maximum coverage, best intelligibility, or do you want a really hard-hitting system with decent coverage and intelligibility? And let’s not forget aesthetics, particularly for denominational churches or those with an older membership.
Then you need to research the options available to you, their pros and cons, and how each impacts your overall goals; then you will be a long way towards having a more constructive conversation with an integrator or consultant.
Let’s start with your priorities; it might seem obvious that having maximum coverage is most important, but not every speaker system is designed for that because intelligibility might be more important for a given church. Even though that might seem counter-intuitive, when churches have older speaker systems that cannot deliver clear sound, this tends to be the priority for any new system and coverage can be something that is assumed to be a deliverable when in reality, if it’s not discussed, you may have a nasty surprise come your first service post-install. I know of a church that had an expensive line array installed, only to discover they needed to add front fills on the sides because the system couldn’t reach the front corner seats!
Discuss with leadership whether intelligibility or coverage is your primary need – one has to take precedence.
So your first mission is to discuss internally with leadership whether you want intelligibility or coverage as your primary need. Of course, they will say they want both, but one has to take precedence. In my experience, coverage should generally be the higher priority since most speaker systems can deliver acceptable clarity for both music and spoken word, particularly when paired with a digital mixer that can EQ around any irregularities in speaker frequency response.
It is important to understand that most speakers, like most microphones, will have a “sweet spot” in the frequency spectrum where they will have a “spike” in volume. This tends to be in the mid-range to better support speech, but in the case of line arrays, I have seen this occur in higher frequencies, such as 7kHz-9kHz, which is less than ideal for a number of reasons. Depending on speaker placement, you can have “lobing” that can throw sound right at your mics on stage, dramatically increasing the likelihood of high frequency feedback (the very kind that produces significant hearing damage, which is concerning).
Once you have determined your primary priority, then you can start researching the different types of speakers that meet that priority. Bear in mind that the more complex your space is, the higher the dollar amount you can expect to pay. I know of a local church that is roughly octagonal in shape, has a stage that juts out into the room to almost the center point and the seating area wraps around significantly that had to shell out nearly $30,000 per speaker because they needed digitally steerable column arrays to properly cover their space without having significant feedback issues. Something to remember when you’re designing your spaces-it might look amazing but trying to provide solid audiovisual support in these spaces can be amazingly challenging and very expensive.
Types of Speakers
Point Source
The most ubiquitous example of a point source speaker would be the typical speaker on a pole in a mobile setup. These tend to have one speaker and woofer working in tandem to shoot sound out in a typical 90°x60° (HxV) pattern using a predetermined wattage. While these can work very well for smaller venues, especially when suspended above and in front of a seating area, it can also lead to dead spots, unwanted reflections off of floors, walls and ceilings and generally require you to blast the people closest to the speakers in order to get sound to the back of the room.
While these tend to be on the lower cost of the spectrum, they are often less than ideal solutions for installed systems and are more effective as stage monitors.
However, if you can get them up in the air, out in front of the seating area, they can be fantastic but you have to get your angles right so that the bottom of the speaker coverage hits the front pews and the top of the speaker coverage hits the people standing in the AV booth. For the vast majority of churches, I would say this could be difficult, particularly when the booth is in the balcony or an alcove halfway up the back wall.
Line Array
By far, the most recommended and most misunderstood speaker type. Line arrays generally have multiple speakers providing wide horizontal coverage combined with very narrow vertical coverage, relying on multiple boxes to cover the vertical coverage that you need.
For example, a typical coverage would be 100° horizontal x 15° vertical; so if you needed 45° of vertical coverage to reach front to back in your church, you would need at least 3 boxes. Line arrays are great at “throwing” sound long distances, so for concerts and large events, these are the “go-to” speaker choice for obvious reasons. It’s not atypical to see line array hangs of 12+ boxes, even requiring some hangs to be pitched upwards to cover the nosebleeds in arena environments.
You do need to really do your research and work with a professional if you’re considering line arrays, though, because there are a lot of tricks, tips and hazards to be aware of. Things like “shading” boxes, which is all about setting the gain staging correctly between multiple boxes so you’re not blasting those sitting closer to the speakers into oblivion and those furthest away can’t hear well at all-mimicking a point source setup; or setting EQ and delay timing correctly to provide the best listening experience for everyone; to trim heights, power and signal distribution, proper rigging, etc. can all lead to more cost, more headaches and more frustration to achieve the desired outcome; not to mention the aesthetic impact.
As I mentioned before, though, in my experience, line arrays tend to have spikes in their frequency response; I was recently designing an array for a client and I saw there was a significant drop in frequency response between 400Hz and 600Hz, which meant that those seated in the areas where those “valleys” existed would lose that segment of the spectrum nearly entirely. This was rather surprising and distressing, particularly when you consider this system was going to be nearly double the available budget. Obviously, I explained the facts to the client and they opted for a different solution.
I don’t mean to bad mouth line arrays, but it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each available option so you can make the best decision for your church.
Column Arrays
Similar in principle to line arrays, with multiple speakers coalescing to deliver even sound across a wide area, I have found that these tend to meet most, if not all, of the requirements my clients tend to have: max coverage, even volume, good clarity and acceptable aesthetic impact.
Not every column array is built the same, either; I once had a system I came across that had such a narrow vertical coverage window, clarity was lost between sitting and standing in the pews.
Column arrays tend to blend fairly seamlessly into most environments and can usually be painted if the blend must be especially invisible. I know of a church who hand-painted an oak grain onto their column arrays so they would disappear into the existing wooden structure.
Generally, they tend to be mounted lower than point source or line arrays, which could have impact on your ability to get signal cable to them. They also tend to be passive, so you only have the signal cable to route rather than requiring a power outlet nearby. They can easily hide on a beam or wall and in my experience tend to be quite forgiving in placement and active use.
We installed two in an asymmetrical space, requiring one to be mounted very much behind and to one side of the pulpit, which I assumed would induce feedback badly-I was pleasantly surprised to learn that we had zero issues with feedback.
The more complex your space is, the higher the dollar amount you can expect to pay.
In Conclusion
Regardless of which speaker type you ultimately choose, it’s important to know what you are getting and what to expect. If you have time to learn, there are free tools available to do your own speaker plots based on the dimensions of your space. There are plenty of people on YouTube to teach you how to do this and how to understand the results. EASE and REW are two options for speaker and room modeling, though you will want to go through some tutorials first on how to use them properly.
If you’re working with an integrator, sit down with them to see if they are modeling your room and if they are, ask them for the plots so you can see how frequency and SPL (volume) will perform in your space.
If you don’t have anyone you’re working with, reach out to Technologies for Worship and they can likely connect you with someone that can help guide you to the right choice for your space. Choosing the right speaker system has long-lasting impacts so it’s important to do it right rather than going lone wolf and making the wrong decision. Help is available so please utilize it!
Tim Adams spent over 20 years volunteering in church technical ministry and now focuses on helping small churches achieve technical excellence through equipment upgrades, training, sharing best practices and teaching leadership how to cast God-sized vision.
