Hey, friends, if you are reading this article because you missed church last Sunday, you've come to the wrong place. Even though I attend church regularly, I cannot offer any absolution for your sins. However, if you want to create better sound at your home church or get some valuable insight into the mechanics of house of worship installations, you're talking to the right guy.
In this particular issue we will be looking at personal monitors (a descriptive term for monitoring headphones that fit inside the ear canal) for the worship team (that would be a descriptive term for the musicians/singers that lead the congregation in worship songs). There are a variety of PM products available on the market, and certainly PMs are by no means new phenomena. So I am not going to explore the different manufacturers or the pros and cons of wired versus wireless systems. You get out there and do your homework on what products will serve your particular client, and I will try to add some insight to the rest of the process. The worship leaders, along with the pastor/spiritual leader, are of course the kingpins when it comes to additions to any house of worship system. A lot of churches include their pastor/spiritual leader in the worship team. Or the leader of the church may be the leader of the worship team. Whatever the particular scenario, if the pastor and leaders are not on board with PMs, they probably won't be used at that particular church. For the sake of this article, I am assuming you have a house that wants, or is considering, moving into the realm of PMs. For now, let me get into the pros and cons of using PMs in a house of worship environment.
My home church in Pasadena (the Pasadena Four Square) is a relatively small church, and the band (worship team) is loud. On a typical Sunday you will have a drummer, bass player, two or three guitar players, a keyboardist and a half dozen singers. Plenty enough musicians and instruments to "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord" (Psalms 98:4). The problem with that "joyful noise" is that it can hurt the ears of the faithful. And when you add the decibels produced by a half dozen floor monitors to the overall mix, the volume can really cause your cup to runneth over. OK, enough Bible sayings, the real challenge in Pasadena was to bring down the volume while still facilitating the musicians' ability to hear each other as well as the singers. Personal monitors seemed like a viable solution. The staff undertook the appropriate research, and an Aviom system was purchased. Keep in mind, in your particular scenario, you may be doing the research. At any rate, in a short time the initial goal of reducing the overall volume during the Sunday service was achieved. That would be a pro if you weren't paying attention. And we also now have the ability to remove some of the stage monitors. The leader of the worship team, we will call him Pastor David (because that happens to be his name), loves his PMs. He claims he can sing better with less strain, that there is more clarity onstage, and that he feels closer to the congregation. David would probably describe his PMs as a little bit of heaven on earth. However, not everybody on the worship team wears PMs. Not because there are not enough PMs to go around, but because there is a learning curve to the Aviom system, and any system for that manner. This learning curve has to be overcome before one can make an educated decision on whether or not to use the PMs.
Most worship teams are made up of a volunteer group of singers and musicians. None of the churches that I work with take the time to train their volunteers. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that most volunteers don't have time to be trained in the use of any new technologies. If you just plug a set of PMs into one of these non-professional singers or musicians, you will often find that their experience with this type of monitoring can be very strange. I guess that falls under the learning curve thing. Then you have to contend with the musicians and singers who will just not use PMs. Generally this group is made up of the older players. I don't want to stereotype these people, but if you have been listening to stage monitors for the last 20 or 30 years, it is generally difficult to make the transition to PMs.
For myself, I have used PMs off and on for ten years. But working as a professional musician, I have mostly used them while performing in front of a rock audience, not a religious congregation. I personally feel separated from my fellow musicians and somewhat removed from the audience. However, in my use of PMs, I never really had to worry about stage volume. I only use my personal experience with this type of monitoring as a reference for my work in this arena.
My advice to those of you who install personal monitoring systems in houses of worship is to include training and to follow up on your bid. When I install an FOH sound system in a church, I always include a training course with the installation. Most of the time I will return to my client's church and mix a Sunday or Wednesday. I believe that this is even more important when you install a PM system. If I were writing a proposal today, I would attempt to schedule at least two training sessions of at least two hours each. More would be better, but I am trying to realistic.
Keep in mind that it is not a real stretch to take your expertise in on-stage monitoring and transition into personal monitoring. Just a little homework on your part, and you should be ready to rock or praise, or whatever.
E-mail Jamie at jrio@fohonline.com.
