The Budget Done It!
The general contractor goes to the church administrator and says “Look, I can save you $250,000 on this building with one simple change – just delete the absorption at the ceiling. We already have insulation on top of the roof, so there’s no need for that extra cost.” Of course, the church administrator leaps at the chance.
What neither the GC nor the administrator took into account was the fact that the acoustics consultant was counting on the absorption coefficient of that “extra” fuzz as part of his overall solution. By the time he found out about the cut it was too late to get it reinstated.
So then you walk into the room and as an astute observer of things technical you realize that the room sounds terrible and the sound system isn’t as intelligible as it should be. Of course you don’t know the sordid history of the building project, so you naturally blame the idiot sound system designer, or the acoustics consultant. Or you blame the poor church sound mixer for his/her inexperience or lack of gifting.
Without having everyone on the same page with a congruent vision for the end result, it’s desperately easy for uncontrolled value-engineering to take place. It gets seemingly out of control because often those decisions are made by individuals who know nothing about the systems they’re cutting.
It’s unlikely that they’ll cut the softly padded pews because they understand the need for comfortable seating. HVAC systems, house lighting systems, the quantity and placement of doors, etc. are based on simple formulas or building code requirements that deliver predictable results.
What many don’t understand or accept as truth is the fact that sound system designs, video projection system designs, stage lighting system designs, and even acoustics are also based on time-honored, provable formulas. Like most similar disciplines, great results are developed through a blend of science, experience and art.
Computers do not tell us how to design sound systems. They help us predict the results if we install the system we have in mind. The good designer spends untold hours studying, listening, watching, experiencing, researching, testing, and talking with peers about design concepts, techniques and the latest gear. They don’t get paid for that investment in time, yet they have to make the investment if they’re going to stay on top of their craft. It would be embarrassing for a client to tell the designer that one of the pieces of equipment that he has proposed is no longer manufactured.
Unfortunately some systems miss their mark because an influential member of the project team didn’t know what they were talking about, but were better at convincing the church to do things their way.