SAC Install - New Church Site - Design Help

[Mike Bizanovich]

Folks:

I've been asked to help with the design of a new worship site for our church. We're moving from a junior high auditorium to an abandoned Ford dealership. It's actually quite a site with the offices/showroom to be used for fellowship, kids, offices, etc., and the service area 100'x70' for the worship area. I need some guidance with the needs from the sound reinforcement side with speaker selection/placement. I'm good with the SAC implementation from the hardware/networking side but have never looked at this kind of venue in terms of a permanent installation. The church cannot afford a venue engineer for this and that's why I'm involved. I will be sending the room dimensions to Auralex and the like to get some ideas about sound treatment. The room has a peak of 14' in the center and about 12' feet at the side walls and the ceiling has a covered or painted fiberglass insulation between the roof joists. Actually, the naked room sounds better than the auditorium we currently occupy! Anyway, if anybody has some ideas for resources or have done this kind of thing before, I would greatly appreciate some pointers. Thanks.

Mike Bizanovich
Wheeling, WV

[Brent Evans]

www.billfitzmaurice.info/forum

The guys on that forum directed me (and quite a few others) here (Steven Genter, thanks again). Bill sells DIY plans for speaker systems that dust many higher priced commercial offerings. You can either DIY or have the cabinets built by an authorized buidler, and still come out better than buying commercial cabinets. The forum has quite a few pros who know acoustics and speaker design very well.

[gdougherty]

+1 Exactly where I'd send you. I'd also recommend looking into some DIY absorption panels rather than Auralex. You can build 2'x4' absorption panels in almost any color for about $30 each. Also, you could talk to Yogi about licensing his design you can find in the thread here

[Scott P]

I highly suggest that you look at these sites

http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthr...f19a1ff3c59e45

and

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/vi...ef5a9e61b5ebd8

These are mainly for smaller rooms, but basic principles still apply and materials are well documented.

There is tons of information on acoustics there, but be sure to read all of the stickies and do a search before asking any questions. A lot of questions are already answered.

Scott

[Guitarkeys.com]

The battle you will face is the what will make it sound good usually doesn't look good. Of course this is not my opinion, I'm a bit partial to all the panels and treatment in my studio, but most are not.

My first step would be to sit down with the designer and find out where their limits are (if any). You also, might need to find some good examples and bad examples to take them to so that they can tell that you are not an audio crazy that is talking about things outside the normal curve of a typical listener.

Lastly, don't compromise. Yes, I'm single... lol... But if you place 1 acoustic panel in the bathroom a) you will get the "we treated the place and it doesn't sound any different" b) it will not be something you will will be proud of and consistently be making excuses as to why it doesn't sound good. Let them know that it is a true systems approach and that audio should come first in a church...

This is just my 2 cents. But I go through this from time to time and have made my share of errors to learn these.

Jamie

[Yogi]

Mike,
One of the difficulties I could see you facing in that room is the massive amount of glass that will probably be present on at least two of the walls. Glass has some particularly nasty attributes when the sound level SPL gets "up there". What may sound OK or better than your current environment may turn into something quite different later. If you want you can send me the layout of your main area along with wall materials. I have two programs that I use that will tell me a great deal about how it will sound and what it will need to sound it's best. Doing acoustics for churches is a ministry of mine (and saving them tons of money in the process). Let me know if you'd like some help.

[Mike Bizanovich]

Thanks to all for the input and references. Yogi, please PM me as I'd like to speak with you about this project. Actually, there will be no glass at all in this install. The sanctuary is being converted from a huge service area of a former car dealership. Thanks again.

Mike Bizanovich
Wheeling, WV

[Angie]

Mike,
Yogi's custom work looks better suited to your needs. But I'll throw out the link to how I did panels for the studio here - dirt cheap.

http://www.avocadoproductions.com/st...truction12.htm

[Carl G.]

I highly suggest that you look at these sites

http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthr...f19a1ff3c59e45

and

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/vi...ef5a9e61b5ebd8

These are mainly for smaller rooms, but basic principles still apply and materials are well documented.

There is tons of information on acoustics there, but be sure to read all of the stickies and do a search before asking any questions. A lot of questions are already answered.

Scott

Nice Links Scott, Thanks.
Just one additonal thought: One of the premier voice talents in the 60's in SF area used a large persian rug hung from the ceiling just in back of him (and I believe some kind of baffle just behind the mic) which kept accoustics fairly dead quite.