What and where should they go?

[audioa89]

Ok, so im the worship leader at my church and I have a question about what kind of speaker how may should be used and where they should go. I understand that to make an educated answer you will need a lot more info then I am giving you but I just want to know general info.

My church sanctuary is symmetrical with a length of 150 ft and a width of 75 ft the ceiling slopes towards the center with the highest point reaching 30 ft. We currently have one 12 inch speaker/horn mounted on the ceiling in the "sweet spot" of the room no subs we two personal monitors.

My main question is if I want to have an Acoustic, electric guitar amp mic'd, a electric drum set and 3 vocalists running through the system is this one speaker enough to handle all the instruments running at a comfortable volume (lower 90s) for our room running mono.

What would be ideal for our room?
Ive seen a tree of speakers hanging in the sweet spot at some churches. Is this something that would work.

[cmchamp]

Good morning and welcome aboard.
I'm just a few hours to your west if you'd like a site visit.

Music needs aside, is your most pressing issue speech intelligibility - being able to clearly understand what's being said?
How are the acoustics of the room - how long does sound trail off after a hand clap?

As for center clusters (tree of speakers), it depends, and honestly, there's a "sweet spot" only if the acoustics of the room are properly handled, so placement of other speakers in the same position most likely will not result in any change in quality of intelligibility.

How high is the single speaker flown?

Look forward to aiding all I can.

C.

[Brad Weber]

It would depend greatly on the specific speaker and how it is applied, powered, processed, etc., however there are not many two-way boxes with a 12" woofer that with just one flown speaker could handle all the sources you mentioned at the levels noted in a 150' deep, 75' wide room. I would guess that you have the very common situation of a sound system designed for basic speech reinforcement while the use has changed to incorporate live music performance.

Assessing what might be appropriate would indeed require knowing much more about the space, the use, the budget, etc.

[Frank DeWitt]

I like a center speaker or a center cluster in a room like yours. Most important, you need the room tested by a pro and speakers put into the model the pro makes and tested in the model. then you can buy the right speakers the first time.

A guy wrote to another church sound forum that I follow and said his church needed new speakers, he was looking at A or B. What did people think. everyone told him to hire a pro. He wrote back last week and said his church DID hire a pro. The guy worked on the DSP, reamed the speakers, added one, and a sub woofer. Saved them $10,000

Hire a pro.

Frank

[audioa89]

Originally Posted by cmchamp

Good morning and welcome aboard.
I'm just a few hours to your west if you'd like a site visit.

Music needs aside, is your most pressing issue speech intelligibility - being able to clearly understand what's being said?
How are the acoustics of the room - how long does sound trail off after a hand clap?

As for center clusters (tree of speakers), it depends, and honestly, there's a "sweet spot" only if the acoustics of the room are properly handled, so placement of other speakers in the same position most likely will not result in any change in quality of intelligibility.

How high is the single speaker flown?

Look forward to aiding all I can.

C.

Speech is pretty clear I have not heard any negative comments from our congregation about the speaker. My concerns are about the music. Its hard to pick out the electric guitar in the mix and the drums are always at too low of a level. I know some of our problem is the person behind the board but that is a separate issue. Im pretty sure this speaker that was flown 20 years ago with no maintenance or cleaning doesn't suit are more contemporary style of worship we are trying to achieve.

What would be a rough estimate for our budget for replacing our main speaker.
If we had someone (pro) come in, including the cost of the new speakers

[Brad Weber]

Originally Posted by audioa89

Speech is pretty clear I have not heard any negative comments from our congregation about the speaker. My concerns are about the music. Its hard to pick out the electric guitar in the mix and the drums are always at too low of a level. I know some of our problem is the person behind the board but that is a separate issue. Im pretty sure this speaker that was flown 20 years ago with no maintenance or cleaning doesn't suit are more contemporary style of worship we are trying to achieve.

What would be a rough estimate for our budget for replacing our main speaker.
If we had someone (pro) come in, including the cost of the new speakers

Probably worth a bit more 'exploratory' discussion before addressing costs or budgets. For example, what is the rest of the system? If there is any system equalization or processing then it may have been adjusted primarily for speech and could possibly be readjusted based on the current use of the system to obtain a better balance for speech and music. Conversely, if no system equalization or processing exists then incorporating some may be a good idea whether you replace the speaker or not.

It would also help to know things such as the style of music, the physical conditions such as where and how speakers could be mounted and how to get cabling to those locations, the acoustical environment, what power is available if additional amplification or powered speakers are considered, the stage sound levels that may have to be considered and so on.

If you are considering a new speaker system you should probably consider not just your needs today but also your vision for the foreseeable future. Might you add a bass and want to run that through the system? Might the levels the system needs to support change? Your current speaker has apparently been there 20 years, might the church have to work with anything you do now for the next 20 years?

[cmchamp]

I've been known to visit, chat, discuss for mileage...
Now that school has started, my week-day times would be evenings, and weekends won't be till after the first weekend of November.

Regarding "mix"
You pegged part of the issue - who's mixing.
The other part of the issue - multiple audio sources.

Speech may sound fine because the system has been voiced for such AND there are only two sources for sound, the speaker's mouth and the reinforcement speaker.

Live music may sound unclear, undefined, or instruments lost in the mix because of multiple sound sources such as guitar amplifiers, floor wedges, smaller personal monitors, etc.

I have been in many sanctuaries with similar size to yours where intelligibility and clarity issues were a combination of the above as well as possible acoustical issues.

C.