In choosing the loudspeaker system that is best suited for a church, there are countless factors to consider. Church Production Magazine conducted an informal survey of acoustical consultants and audio contractors to see what information they use to select loudspeakers for audio systems in houses of worship. The products these professionals recommend for a given project, we were informed, are based not only on the geometric, structural and acoustical make-up of the building, but also where and how the loudspeakers will be situated, in addition to the more predictable factors such as, reliability and satisfaction from prior experiences.

"My first consideration is the room itself, and what the nature of the room’s acoustics are. This will have a large effect on what kind of sound pattern that we are looking for. As a room’s natural reverberant field increases, we are looking for a more focused type of pattern out of that speaker," explains Jerrold Stevens consultant at Pelton Marsh Kinsella, a Dallas, Texas-based consulting firm specializing in acoustics, noise control, audio, video, lighting, and theater design.

After determining the acoustics of the space, Stevens considers the program material that is followed during church services. "Is it a liturgical church that basically involves choir, organ, and speech, or is it a high energy, contemporary, rock ‘n’ roll type of service?"

Stevens notes that aside from selecting the loudspeaker brands and models that will be installed in a sanctuary, consultants and contractors must decide upon a suitable system design. "The central cluster system is probably most commonly installed," he says "Generally, a central cluster or central array will provide better intelligibility for speech. This array of speakers is usually mounted somewhere right over the pulpit. Wherever you are sitting in the room, the sound coming at you is coming from the direction in which you are looking."

Those churches that focus heavily on music would most likely take the design one step further, and implement what is called a three-point, or left-center-right (LCR) system. "The central cluster system is great for speech, but it doesn’t always sound very musical," Stevens notes. "More and more churches are willing to spend money on the three-point system. This has the left and right speakers dedicated to music and effects, while the central cluster is for vocals." By separating the voices from the music, speech intelligibility is improved.

Fan-shaped worship spaces, which are becoming increasingly popular, present audio experts with a number of challenges. "While this room design works well in terms of sightlines, it doesn’t lend itself well to the acoustics, particularly for reinforcement of the choir," Stevens says.

"When you see a choir singing in a performing arts center, you will notice that they don’t just set up risers in the middle of the space on which the choir stands. They will also roll out a shell around this choir, featuring large surfaces around, behind, and overhead," Stevens describes. "What this does, in effect, is help the sound from the choir to project out into the room."

In churches, especially those that are fan-shaped, this isn’t often the case. "What ends up happening is that the church is forced to lean very hard on the sound system to try to get the sound that is being created in the choir out into the congregation," Stevens says. "That means they must do it electronically, and that is very difficult – especially if you are dealing with a very high-energy contemporary program that features guitars, drums, and keyboard, and a lot of amplified music. The sound of the choir must get up and over all of that."

Fan-shaped rooms also demand a lot of loudspeakers that are placed in a three-point system. "Each of those three clusters needs to be able to cover the entire room on their own," Stevens says. "Whereas, in a more rectangular space, the distance from that left cluster to the far right side of the room isn’t so far."

Churches that experience long reverberant times – up to three and four seconds – or are strict about maintaining aesthetic appeal may opt for a pew-back system. "This involves smaller speakers that are mounted on the backs of the pews," Stevens says. "The reason why this system works in a highly reverberant room is that the loudspeaker is very close to the listener. The reason that highly reverberant rooms don’t work with a central cluster is that by the time that sound gets to the listener, the reverberant field of the room is as loud or louder than the direct sound."

Mike Evans, Vice President and Consultant at Alpha Sound, an audio and lighting contracting firm with offices in Mobile, Alabama and Santa Clarita, California, favors arc array loudspeaker designs as opposed to a central cluster format. "Hypothetically, let’s say I’m installing a loudspeaker system in a fan-shaped church with four sections of pews," he illustrates. "I will set a speaker right at the front edge of the pulpit area in front of each set of pews, and then I will go halfway back and install four more speakers [one for each section] and delay them. The majority of the speaker systems that I am installing right now are that way, and have been extremely successful."

Stevens usually relies on some form of horn-loaded speaker enclosure to cover the main seating areas in a church. "These are devices that, in addition to the high frequency horn, will usually have some form of larger-format horn for the midrange," he says. "Depending on the room’s acoustics, as reverb time gets longer, we will also start using vertical arrays of low-frequency devices. We will combine those with the horn-loaded devices to focus sound into the seating area."

"If I’m on a limited budget, I choose full-range speakers," Evans says. "Then, if I want to supplement the low end, I will put subwoofers somewhere in the organ chamber."

Steve Scherer, Consultant in Acoustic and Electronic Media at Dickensheets Design Associates, a full-service consulting business in Austin, Texas, says that the well-established name brand loudspeakers are still the most popular among audio consultants and contractors. "Different speakers have different capabilities," he said. "As far as brands, I would say that most consultants go with the old standards. Most installations involve these brands just because they are so competitive and they do have good, even coverage. For the most part, they will sound very good and handle a relatively large amount of power, which becomes important as the systems in these churches get more powerful."

Evans, who at one time utilized separate horn and driver speaker combinations, says that all-in-one enclosures work well in his designs. "With the arc arrays, I don’t have to have as much control over the speakers because I am moving it closer to the listener," he says. "The reason you would use those big horn and driver combinations is that they have a tremendous amount of control, because you are clustering all of them in one position, and the sound must be thrown all the way to the back of the room. Because I am moving the speaker closer to the listener, I don’t have to have as much control."

Jim Brown, President of Audio Systems Group in Chicago, Illinois, emphasized that every church is different, and that the most important thing for the congregation, the acoustical consultant, and the audio contractor to do is to consider what the intentions for the audio technology are. "The design of any sound system has to start with the room and the needs of the user," he said. "Those vary wildly, and they are often wildly complex."