On the other hand, if musical worship takes a back seat to preaching/teaching, then a monaural sound system with very good speech intelligibility would likely be preferred.
Still more to be asked: How often are drama and other “theatrical” presentations included in worship services? Increasingly, churches are offering dramatic vignettes in their services to illustrate key points of a pastor’s sermon.
For this type of presentation to be effective, proper lighting and sufficient platform space are required.
Also, the sound system must be designed and installed to meet these additional needs.
One more question: What other activities are conducted at the church? A sanctuary can be utilized for many activities other than worship.
Off the top of my head, I can name weddings, funerals, concerts, large seasonal productions and community meetings. The frequency and importance of these activities is yet another significant factor of the assessment.
These basic questions (and many others along these lines) must be asked to determine if a church and its systems are appropriate to serve the ministry and vision.
If any consultant or contractor offers up a system design and/or pricing without going through the process of asking these questions, they’re probably trying to sell something based on their ideas – not yours!
Most times the results of inadequate investigation will be mostly incorrect, with the systems not helping the ministry, and in many cases, actually obstructing it. Not to mention being a terrible waste of valuable church resources.
Remember, all you have to do is ask. And ask. And ask…
Dale Alexander has been designing A/V systems more than 25 years and is principle consultant at Creative Technologies Consulting, based in the Oklahoma City area. Find out more about Dale and his company here.