Is it possible to install a decent PA system in a Church

Rocker

without breaking the Bank that is.  Yesterday at a special Mass for a late relative, I found that I heard very little despite there being up to a dozen speakers along both walls.  I knew and could see that Readings, Reflections etc. were being said but the lack of clarity of the PA meant that it remained unheard.  My wife had the same experience too.  Lots of volume but no definition or clarity.

So it it possible to kit out a Church with a decent (permanent) PA system?  Any suggestions please (active or passive), I will write to the Parish Priest with your suggestions as the Church is due to be renovated in the very near future.  Thanks.

ICBM

The problem in a traditional stone church is that effectively you're inside a giant reverb tank. It's very difficult to get real definition and clarity no matter what you do.

Many small speakers - so that the listener is at least close to each speaker, rather than getting most of the sound (plus reverb) from a long way away - is probably the best way to do it. That's most likely why "church columns" are the most common type of speakers, as well as them blending visually into the architecture.

The luxury of being able to put a nice sound system in a good room is probably restricted to Americans in their wooden churches...

ESBlonde

As John says the traditional building and the sight lines are the main and significant problems. It is possible to engineer a solution but that is costly, not just for the hardware but the tuning and timing of the sound waves at any single focal point is complex even with modern fancy computer control.

It's all about time, literally getting the prominant sound waves to one persons ears at the single moment in time (to avaoid the fugg of reverbaration). The ear can be fooled into hearing the sound from a source as long as that source is heard first, so you might hear the person and have it reinforced by a loudspeaker by your head at a louder volume but as long as the loudspeaker by your head is delayed a microsecond or two behind the distant direct sound you thing it comes clear from the man. The problem is getting the time delay of the speakers correct for each pair of ears scattered throughout the building.

Danny1969

Headphones ........ you could have a stereo socket for every seat on the pew and everyone could enjoy a nice hi fi stereo reproduction from that  

Actually you could control the reverb even in a large church but it would call for a massive amount of diffusion and timed response speakers like they have in Abbey Road Studio One

A couple of months ago I did PA for a memorial  outside a church. We had 2 condensors pickup the audio from the rev and it was pipped outside some 45 meters into a small desk feeding a couple of active speakers on stands so the crowd outside the church could hear it . Very unusual job but all went well

bigjon

I was director of music at a big city church, where they had got the company that did sound-profiling for the Sydney Opera House to do an acoustic profile of the auditorium, then design the speakers so that the delays were perfect for hearing the speaker from the main lectern at the front. Only problem was, we often wanted to move the lectern!

maltingsaudio

There are a lot of companies who specailise in Church sound drop me a pm about location and will recomend some

ESBlonde

Doesn't our own @Sporky indulge in some recreational pro audio design during his spare time when not playing guitar?

shuikit

I've been to a couple of traditional church buildings that sounded like they had decent a PA system, though they've never looked like they were cheap or easy.  I can remember at least one where they had put almost like a false ceiling type of thing in, though I'm not sure if this was to do with sound or aesthetics or any other reason.  The most recent being the HTB Onslow Square site.

I should add that I don't know much about PA systems but the ones I'm thinking of had modern bands (eg drums, bass, guitars, vocals etc) and there wasn't any issue with hearing anything clearly.

Branshen

My church has massive drapings hanging down on the walls. They have biblical images on them, so their primary purpose could be for decoration, but I'm sure that they help a good deal with some unwanted reflection of sounds.