Why Your Church Clients Struggle with Sound – and How You Can Help

Have you ever walked into a worship service and the sound was bad? You’re not alone. “Sound” in and of itself isn’t bad. It’s a combination of musicians, instruments, sound equipment, acoustics and whoever has been tasked with mixing the sound.

That’s a lot of things in the sound pathway to the listeners and with an amazing number of variables in each step.

I’ve been involved in church sound for almost four decades and historically, at least for me, my main struggles don’t normally involve the musicians or their instruments.

That leaves the sound equipment, acoustics and the sound person – and fixing any of these can be costly.

The Sound Equipment:

The cost of sound equipment, especially for small or struggling congregations, can be a challenge. Complicating that – and often setting unrealistic expectations – is equipment that can be found cheaply online. It’s often an off-brand name sporting ridiculously low prices. (A hint here: If it says, “Professional” in the name or description, it usually isn’t, and that applies to many more things than sound gear.)

When an equipment upgrade or renovation is evident, the research usually starts with an online post that begins with, “What can I get for $xx?” If the cost and not the application is always paramount, you’re probably headed down the path of substandard, throwaway and unsupported equipment with a side dish of questionable sound quality.

I get it. Dollars can be hard to come by. I faced it every time I needed equipment for the sound business I used to run. However, I never once regretted putting off a purchase so I could afford better equipment the first time. I did -multiple times -regret buying the ever-so-popular inexpensive substitutes because it was “all I could afford”.

The Room:

The big questions here are, “Is this room suitable for the particular worship style and can the spoken word be heard intelligibly?”

This quote is from Jun Lim, an AV Designer and Instructor in the Philippines:
“No matter how excellent an audio system is, it cannot surpass the limitations imposed by the acoustic environment.”

Read that again and take it in. That quote is worth plastering everywhere.

The late John Murray said, “Once the sound leaves the loudspeakers, it’s out in the wild.”

They are both saying the same thing. The room matters. If the room sucks, the sound is going to suck. If you’re wanting a contemporary worship style in a cathedral that was designed for Gregorian chants, it’s not going to work. The reverse is true as well – Gregorian chants won’t work in a drywall box.

Sadly, acoustical analysis and treatment is the most oft-neglected aspect in all of Pro AV – including House of Worship (HoW). It seems easier to justify purchasing a loudspeaker or a screen because you can better see that tangible asset. Where did the congregation’s money go? You can see it hanging right there!

Spending money on acoustical analysis and treatment can sometimes be a harder sell as sometimes we think technology can fix everything. If we adhere to that mentality, we end up in a constant cycle of buying the latest, greatest most updatest mic, console, loudspeaker, processor, etc. while never addressing the core problem: the acoustic environment.

It’s also amazing how well you can make lower-end equipment sound in a good room.

The Sound Person:

The Tech Team (if you’re fortunate enough to have a team) is usually all volunteer and not often a sound professional. They only get to practice their craft about eight hours a month if they’re the only one doing it and if that’s the only band and room they know, it’s hard to develop increasing skills. Sadly, without proper training, learning may only come through tribal knowledge, and misconceptions about how to run sound and how to tune a sound system run rampant.

Where to Spend the Congregants’ Money:
Dollars are not unlimited so you will need to make choices. My recommendation is to forget the gear and first consider the acoustic environment. Ask the question, “Is this room properly suited for what we are trying to accomplish?” If not, fix it. After the room is fixed, consider equipment but not until then.

While I can buy wireless microphones online for as little as $25.00 per channel, don’t let temptation get the best of you. You should know better. While a budget wireless system might run you a bit over $300.00 per channel, consider for around $500.00 the increased sound quality of a hardwired mic by the same well-known microphone manufacturer as an alternative. (Who would not want to sing into a Shure KSM or a Sennheiser MD 431 II?)

The same philosophy should be used for every aspect of your sound system. What’s popular may not always be the best. Upgrades and replacements may have to be done over time. Another overlooked practice is the establishment of a budget for maintenance and upgrades.

It’s also probably going to be more expensive than you think.

How Can Almo Pro AV help?

We are here to assist integrators in a variety of ways when needed. We can cover it all, from contacts for acoustical treatments and recommendations to full-blown paid engineering services through our LinkLab services division.

Your Almo salesperson can provide direction and can loop in any of us on the audio or product teams as needed. We carry well-known, reputable and respected brands like JBL, Crown, Electro-Voice, Dynacord, Bose Professional, Sennheiser, Shure, Audio-Technica, Ashly, LEA Professional, Allen & Heath and many, many more.

Need audio training? Synergetic Audio Concepts has the best online technical training on the planet. Need more than the technical skills, check out Curt Taipale’s Church Sound Check.

Tom Kehr
About the Author

Tom Kehr

CTS-D, CTS-I, Network+, LEED Green Associate, ISF-C, ATD Master Trainer

In-House System Designer and Trainer

Supported Applications: System Design

AV Runs on Relationships

“I’d rather buy from you than ______.”

How many times have you seen that?  I hope you’ve seen it a lot.  The question is, why are they buying from you and not someone else?

It is because you have established a relationship over time that was built upon trust, open communication and reliability.  They trust you to provide what they need and that what you propose is in their best interests.

media partnersI have often joked that AV doesn’t run on electricity – it runs on food and coffee (or energy drinks for the installers).  Truthfully, it runs on relationships.  Some new but most old.  Something came up and they took care of you.  What was supposed to happen, happened or they helped ease a difficult situation.  It was something that went beyond the swag – it was that personal touch.  A quick call or email after hours.  Listening.  Solving the problem and making it right.

Many years ago, I spec’d fourteen new model DSP boxes from a manufacturer that I already had a relationship with.  I knew they typically ran late on new products like this and this was no exception.  All fourteen boxes ended up being installed and wired in the racks on-site.  A day later, I received a call at my desk from the programmer.  “These boxes don’t do push-to-talk.”  I had made an assumption on what I thought would be a normal feature for this application.  I called my contact that I had known for a long time and he said, “Oh, those do push-to-mute.  We never considered push-to-talk.”  We had updated firmware two days later that included push-to-talk.  You don’t forget that.

When your contact went to another firm, did your business follow them there?  Probably, if they were still within the industry.  The company that they work for is many times immaterial as compared to the person and you know there had to be a reason they moved on from that last company.

getting supportAV is a relationship business whether it be with manufacturers, distributors, rep firms or clients.  The equipment itself is often secondary.

If somebody treated you like just another customer or took a job out from under you that you had been working on for months or a particular product let you down, you remember it.  Forever.  We have some very long memories in AV.

You can easily recount the bad but you also remember the good.

For example, I had to leave my car at the shop overnight when a fellow designer and I took a road trip to perform a site visit to a job in progress.  We returned back to the shop late the next night in the rain to discover that my car had been broken into.  The passenger side glass was broken and radio stolen but worse, they also took my kids’ Christmas presents that I had stashed in the trunk.  The company that I worked for didn’t have to cover the presents that were stolen but they did.  That was 20 years ago and I have never forgotten the kindness that the owner of that business showed me.

Further, how did you get your last job?  Someone knew you and your reputation.  We have all been through that.

Tom Kehr instructorInfoComm is right around the corner and there will be plenty of talk about products.  Sure, take time to talk about the products but more importantly, spend some face-to-face time with the people behind those products.  The gear is fun but it’s the relationships that matter.

I will be there this year and doing a one-hour Basic Acoustics for Meeting Rooms at 4:00pm Tuesday and a two-hour Basics of Power and Grounding at 10:00am Wednesday.  My time there will be short but I will be endeavoring to catch up with as many of you as I am able. [See class details here.]

If you enjoyed this blog, check out Tom’s “The Value of Expertise” blog for more insights.
Tom Kehr

About the Author

Tom Kehr

CTS-D, CTS-I, Network+, LEED Green Associate, ISF-C, ATD Master Trainer

In-House System Designer and Trainer

Supported Applications: System Design

Want a New Year’s Resolution? Put the “Professional” in Pro AV

Are you eating healthy, exercising and doing all that you can to take care of yourself and your family? Are you doing all you can to further your advancement and make yourself more valuable to the company that you work for? Did you get a professional headshot for your web page and LinkedIn profile?

You do all these things because you’re supposed to be a responsible adult but so many of you still look and sound terrible in every video call. I can’t tell how many times I’ve witnessed an executive level person of an AV related company or organization sound and look terrible during an industry interview or podcast. It’s so bad that it’s unusual when they do it well.

I would argue that you are tarnishing your value as a supplier, client and coworker if you don’t get the basics of sound and video correct on a personal level.

unprofessional audiovisual presentationHere is a list of things that I don’t want to see or hear including my nicknames for each:

  • Only one half of your face because the rest is out of frame. (Abstract Art)
  • Only one side of your face because you’re not looking at the camera. (The Profile)
  • A dark face because you’re poorly lit. (Witness Protection Mode)
  • Way too much space above the top of your head. (Kilroy Was Here)
  • Your chin. (The Uppercut)
  • An empty conference table with you at the far end. (The Bowling Alley)
  • Your laptop microphone. (Speakerphone Mode)
  • Your videobar 25 feet away from you. (1/24 Scale)

Face it. Literally. Your laptop camera and microphone look and sound terrible. Your lighting is non-existent. Why are you using the built-in $2.00 microphone and $10.00 webcam to try and sell someone on the need to invest $100K in their conference room?

Promote the value in a quality audiovisual investment starting at your desk – convey your professionalism one-on-one.

I know this can be a vanity issue for some of us. We don’t think we look good on camera, so we turn the camera on only because it’s expected. Speaking as a lifetime member of the Introvert Club, I get it. But as a fellow coworker and introvert said to me, “Preparedness is the best medicine for nerves, so it all began with a simple thought, ‘If I upgrade my webcam, maybe I’ll feel more confident on camera.’” For him it started with a camera that’s popular with content creators. That lead to research on lighting and then what elements were in view of the camera frame. After that came the audio. He now has the best looking and sounding rig in the entire company. Plus, he and his wife started doing podcasts! He’s not even in the Pro AV division, he’s in IT. I might have the edge on him on the audio side, but he absolutely smokes me on the video side.

Lesson: If your IT person looks and sounds better than you, you seriously need to up your game.

Remind yourself that we are in Professional AV and more importantly, that we are in a relationship business. You wouldn’t visit your client in person knowing that you had bad breath so why are you practicing virtual bad breath with every video call?

Camera, lights, microphone and look up the “Rule of Thirds” for subject framing. It’s a “system” not unlike all the various components we put together for a client’s “system”. While it may be on a smaller scale it should be no less professional than the experience we’re promoting.

While we would love to work with you on your next $100K project, we’re no less interested in helping you look more professional on a personal level. This is the AV industry – we’re all in this together.

If you enjoyed this blog, check out Tom’s “Choose Quality AV” blog for more insights.

Tom Kehr
About the Author

Tom Kehr

CTS-D, CTS-I, Network+, LEED Green Associate, ISF-C, ATD Master Trainer

In-House System Designer and Trainer

Supported Applications: System Design

The Value of Expertise

“Old age and treachery beats youth and enthusiasm every time” is an old saying that I’ve used on numerous occasions – certainly, more often now as I continue to make laps around the sun.

A colleague and I had a fun bit of banter on this topic recently:

Him: Youth provides new perspectives and new solutions.
Me: But lacks maturity, wisdom and expertise.
Him: and fear and baggage, and bad habits to unlearn.
Me: “Old Age and Treachery Beats Youth and Enthusiasm Every Time.”
Him: There is value to both.
Me: Can arrive at solutions quickly. Avoids common pitfalls. Can discern between real change and fads.
Him: There is value to both.

(When you repeat yourself, you’ve lost. Just sayin’)

train station EnglandWant to know something? Ask someone who has been around a while. An example of this was back in 2007 as I got off the train in Guilford in Surrey, England. I needed directions to my hotel and since the information center was closed, I made inquiry with the nearest group of locals. They were younger and had never heard of the place. Their knowledge was limited. Afterwards I sought assistance from a much older person that I saw. Instant useable information. He knew his small town and how to get around.

A deep knowledge level was evident with a colleague of mine that recently retired. He had well over 30 years in AV and was well versed in products, applications, installations and the audiovisual business as a whole. Extremely knowledgeable with field experience, always willing to assist, mentor and never arrogant. (That description actually fits almost all of “The Greats” that I’ve ever been associated with in this industry and it’s one of the unique things that I treasure about it.)

I was first introduced to this new colleague right after Exertis and Almo became Exertis Almo. As audio people tend to do, we like to size one another up in conversation. What we really want to know is whether or not this person knows their stuff. There are a lot of supposed audio people out there and we want to separate the wheat from the chaff very quickly so we’re not wasting our time.

As an aside, it’s said that the only thing two sound people can agree on is how to spend a third sound person’s money.

Audio people can be a very opinionated bunch.

team opinions collaborationIn this case, what I discovered was a person with much the same in product preferences and a similar approach in design philosophy. It was very beneficial, when either of us got a project, to get on a Zoom call to discuss, assess and quickly arrive at an effective design approach. Yes, the client may have been inquiring about a product or solution they’d seen but we could also look beyond at what problem they might be trying to address with that equipment or inquiry. It helped us to better get to a real solution rather than just coming up with a list of boxes that could be sold. There’s a lot of value in that and it comes only with experience.

From the friendly banter noted above, my colleague mentioned that youth can provide new perspectives and solutions without fear, baggage and bad habits to unlearn. I wholeheartedly agree with that position. Conversely, the old guard brings maturity, wisdom and we can assess a situation and arrive at an effective solution quickly. If we lack information, we know how and where to research and we know whose opinion we can trust. We can discern fact from fiction and learned many years ago that certain types of products are not a one-size-fits-all. Further, since we’ve been around a while, we can discern between something that can bring real change vs. just another fad. We’re the same ones that have seen 3D come and go. Twice. (We’ll let you know when it’s actually viable.)

Over time, we’ve built relationships and trust around the industry and we can be honest with each other if the product isn’t a good fit.

Many years ago, I was the one with all the youth and enthusiasm. I had the ability to spout off with complete confidence whatever I was told by someone that had been around audio longer than I had. That’s not smart in an industry that is already filled with misconceptions. Thankfully, I started under the tutelage of a wise mentor and he remains one of my closest friends to this day.

FireWire interfaceTruthfully, you need the best of both youth and maturity if you’re not going to be left with a warehouse of FireWire interfaces or trying to sell solutions that promise to change everything but in practice, have limited application.

Which is really what we want anyway, right? The ability and foresight to embrace new possibilities guided with mature wisdom.

If you would like to tap into that right balance of youth and maturity, give our team here at Exertis Almo a call and we’ll be glad to provide some guidance on your next project.

If you enjoyed this blog, check out Tom’s “Choose Quality AV” blog for more insights.

Tom Kehr

About the Author

Tom Kehr

CTS-D, CTS-I, Network+, LEED Green Associate, ISF-C, ATD Master Trainer

In-House System Designer and Trainer

Supported Applications: System Design

The Value of a Good Sounding Room

Let’s talk sound.

We’re in this huge (to us) world of AV and the V often grabs all the attention because it’s bright and colorful and it gets bigger and with more pixels all the time. It’s the Blinky Light Syndrome. Audio is seen as the noise that goes with the picture and sadly, really good audio implementations aren’t very common. Further, the common user of AV doesn’t understand even the basics of audio such as the Inverse Square Law but they can understand the simplicity that 4K is more than 2K so it must be better.

business meeting audio videoA survey that I saw about workplaces taken pre-pandemic showed that audio was four times more important than video and that 4 of the top 5 frustrations were related to audio. None of the top five were video related yet the majority of the investments were expected to be focused on displays and control systems. The blinky lights. Little “a”, big “V”.

To some extent, it’s easy to understand the focus. It’s easy to justify a new 21:9 display or LED wall because the upgrade is in your face, literally. You know where the money went. It’s right there on the wall.

While you can experience sound, good or bad, you can’t see it. While you can easily measure background noise or RT60 times, you can’t see a NR rating or a RT60 time and most site surveys never include making basic room acoustical measurements. Out of sight, out of mind.

While some know the room has a sound problem, they may not understand the benefit of why they should put money and resources into changes needed to the infrastructure. It’s easier to justify a budget for equipment because it’s invested into something tangible. They can show their supervisors exactly where the money went. They can point to it.

Recommendations for acoustical treatments or reducing the HVAC noise aren’t popular even though they are foundational for human communication within the space. Acoustical treatment is often the first thing deleted in a “value engineering” exercise. (Perhaps we should market acoustical treatment with sensors and colored LEDs that vary with the amount of sound energy being absorbed or diffused so they can see it “work”.) Worse, acoustics may not even be a consideration when aesthetics are the primary concern. Remember this after the last contractor has packed up and left the site: The end users are still there. They’re stuck with whatever has been built whether it serves their purposes or not. If it’s a bad room, the search begins again in a couple of years to upgrade the technology in the room because communication in the room requires effort. While that’s fine for selling equipment, it impacts AV’s reputation as an industry.

Here’s something else to consider:

Meeting room conversationThe one thing that hasn’t changed over time is the human. Humans communicate with other humans using the same interfaces, the same eyes and ears they’ve been using since we were drawing pictures on cave walls.

And while the signal processors have improved, they still can’t fix a bad room.

Numerous references state that the RT60 time for a meeting room or classroom should be under 0.60 seconds in the 500, 1,000 and 2,000 Hz octave bands. Persistent reverberation decreases intelligibility.

ASHRAE’s (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers) chapter on Sound and Vibration gives maximum allowable background noise levels of NC 30 and RC 30. Excessive background noise levels reduces the acoustic signal-to-noise ratio in the room which decreases intelligibility.

If communication is impeded in the room, the humans have to exert more energy to listen and listener fatigue begins to set it. This isn’t “Zoom Fatigue”. This is the fatigue that sets in trying to communicate with one another in the same room. The extreme to this is being on the far side of an audio conference call with bad audio. It’s too much work to try and understand what’s being said so you start checking email and doing other things. You might as well not even be there as information is no longer being communicated once you’ve tuned out. If you’re in the same room with bad acoustics or excessive noise you just pretend to be listening because doing otherwise is simply impolite. Add in someone whose first language is not your own and the effort required to understand what’s being said increases exponentially.

When was the last time you saw any sound measurement requirements on a Site Survey form? Why is it that two of the most basic metrics used to assess a classroom or meeting room for suitability as a classroom or meeting room are ignored like they don’t exist?

A lot of rooms with only carpet and acoustic ceiling tiles for the drop ceiling will meet the RT60 criteria. For example, a 30 ft. x 20 ft. with a 9 ft. ceiling comes in just under 0.60 even with some glass walls. Raise that ceiling to 10 ft. and you’ve added more reflective surface but the amount of absorptive surface, the ceiling, hasn’t changed and you’re over the limits. Lose those absorptive ceilings tiles with the 9 ft. ceiling and the numbers go to about 2-3 seconds. But I’m sure it’s a pretty room.

microphone podium conference-roomI’ve seen meeting rooms with tall open ceilings including exposed joists and ductwork – all the properties of a mini gymnasium. Another one was an open office concept in an old warehouse made of concrete with a conferencing set up in the middle of the open area. It had all the acoustical properties of a parking garage. I’ve been asked for a mix-minus system in a room that’s less than 1,100 sq. ft. because the acoustics are so bad. It had a very tall “V” shaped ceiling that rises on both ends and comes down to a point about 12 ft. AFF in the center of the room. But it has a skylight.

And while things like ceiling or wall mounted microphones have gotten better and the sound has improved going to the far side, these same devices and processors can’t fix these rooms.

What about noting other acoustical room defects such as concave walls and domed ceilings?

Have you asked AI to show you a modern meeting room? If you’re an audio or acoustics person, you’ll cringe at most of these images but that’s what clients are seeing and now expecting from the look of a meeting room. AI needs to take some courses in acoustics.

If you’re trying to meet sustainability objectives for LEED or the WELL Building Standard, you’ll see some of the same acoustic criteria I noted above for limits on RT60 times and maximum background noise. These folks get it – it’s about the quality of the environment being designed for human comfort.

Someone asked me recently what I use on site. “My eyes.” If the room looks pretty, you’re probably in trouble. All of that glass and marble is not your friend acoustically, nor it is the user’s friend. That’s not to say that I don’t back up what I’m seeing without measurements because I do measure, but if you’ve been around a while, you know what to expect before you ever open your kit.

That’s also not to say that every meeting room or classroom should be devoid of any personality or artistry but it needs to consider room materials, room shape and room size as primary considerations for the room it be effective as intended.

Designing for Good Sound

In the end, we all know we need to sell, design, specify, install, configure, test, commission, and support AV systems to make a living. However, I think we’re well overdue in informing building owners, architects and other construction disciplines in the criteria required for a functional meeting or classroom space.

First, make it comfortable for the humans to communicate with each other in the room. They probably won’t understand or know why they like the room but they will and they’ll prefer it over other underperforming rooms. Afterwards, apply the technology so they can communicate with other humans outside of that room.

If you need assistance or have questions about a client’s project you’re looking at, reach out to us here at Exertis Almo. We’re happy to share what we’ve learned over the years to help make it a complete system that includes the room.

If you enjoyed this blog, check out Tom’s “Choose Quality AV” blog for more insights.

Tom Kehr

About the Author

Tom Kehr

CTS-D, CTS-I, Network+, LEED Green Associate, ISF-C, ATD Master Trainer

In-House System Designer and Trainer

Supported Applications: System Design

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