Generally speaking, when we think of house of worship installs, we envision FOH speakers, monitors, outboard gear, mics and a mixing console. That is obviously a very simplistic vision, but it does cover the basics. Well, a short time ago I discovered the "other buildings." Just about every church, temple, synagogue, etc., has additional multi-use buildings at the same location.
I got a call to give a bid on a portable sound system for the youth house of a church in Glendora, Calif. This building was a former home that the church had purchased and set up for the youth of their congregation. The youth pastor wanted a small system to be set up in the living room area with additional speakers to be installed out in the patio area. He also wanted this system to be portable so that, for various events, it could be set up out in the back yard of the house. However, the main use of this system was to provide programmed music for the youth who visited and volunteered at the house. After looking the project over, I convinced the youth pastor and the senior pastor that two systems would be more effective and not much more expensive. One system would be a permanent install of ceiling-mounted speakers in six locations throughout the house and outdoor patio, along with a power amp, speaker selector/ volume control and CD/tuner with an iPod/MP3- player port. The power amp and components would be installed in a closet in the youth house office. The second system would be a couple of powered speakers on sticks and a couple of powered monitors, along with a mixer, stands, cables and mics. I had a decent budget for the project, but it wasn't without limitations.
My install system would only consist of two speakers per room and two outdoor boxes in the patio. The design was basic, but I did want speakers with punch and some horsepower to drive them. I started in the main living room. There, I decided on two three-way ceiling speakers with an eight-inch woofer, a 2.5-inch mid-range speaker and a compression tweeter. The other four rooms got two-way ceiling speakers with six-inch woofers and a tweeter, and the patio got a pair of two-way outdoor speakers with eightinch woofers and high compression horns. I powered the rig with a 2000-watt amp and used an analog six-station speaker selector with individual volume controls to control the speaker pairs in the various rooms. The music was sourced via a CD/tuner.
As you can see, I am not sharing with you what manufacturers I used for my install components. There are obviously buckets of companies out there making great gear. But this article is about the gig, not the gear. If you want to get some insight on equipment, you can read my gear reviews.
Once I had decided which speakers would be installed in the various rooms, it was time to install them. I have done a lot of residential installations, so this was not a big challenge. However, I know that some of you may have little or no experience with home installations. Well, it's not very difficult. In fact, I think it's a lot easier than your regular house of worship install. If you have any "how-to" questions, just go online or drop me an e-mail at jrio@fohonline.com.
The hardest part of my particular install was the fact that the ceilings in the youth house were lath and plaster, rather than the drywall that is commonly used today. I was using a rotozip tool and sacrificing one bit after another on this extratough ceiling. The ceiling in the living room was also sprayed with cottage cheese. So after I cut my holes, I had to remove the cheesy flock from the area where the speakers and grill trims sat in order to get a consistent seal. The rest of the install was a piece of cake. I ran wire, hooked up the components, and we were ready to rock. The fact that the ceilings in this house are made of a much harder and more rigid material than today's drywall really tightened up the bass response of the speakers. Especially in the living room. This was an unexpected treat and made all that hard work cutting the holes for the speakers more worthwhile. Now that the house system was installed, I only needed to put together the components for the portable P.A. and pick up my check.
As I mentioned earlier, the P.A. consisted of the powered speakers on a stick, two monitors and a mixer. The mixer included two graphic EQs and onboard effects. Add in the mics and cables, and I was done. Of course, I didn't just set up the gear and leave. I spent time with the various volunteers training them on how to use the systems. With each system, I created a notebook with full operation instructions, all warranty papers and component descriptions. This is my standard practice for all of my installs, but with this particular gig, I added in a couple of visits to check out the system and make certain all was well.
At the end of this project, I had some very happy clients. The youth pastor, who had his office in the youth house, just loved the install system. He could put on some music to work by and adjust the volume in his office to his taste. Or crank up the living room and leave the game room silent, or any combination of the six stations. He also liked the fact that, with all the room and patio speakers cranked up, the whole house vibrated. It's a power thing.
The moral of the story here is that there are more possibilities for installation work at your typical house of worship than just the obvious one. Every house, building or extra room can provide a location for an install. The work is right in front of you if you look for it.
Contact Jamie at jrio@fohonline.com
