West Music Staff Blogs

Greetings! This article discusses loudspeaker placement in houses of worship. Note that if your application is live portable/touring sound, weekend band, or other application, please contact me (see below) for a more application-specific discussion of your needs because those applications can be vastly different than the installed systems discussed here.

The decision on the location of your sanctuary main and monitor loudspeakers will have a decided impact on the success of your presentation.

A single source of sound is best for the spoken word, whenever possible.

In a perfect world, as it relates to audio systems for worship, it’s best practice to place the sanctuary main loudspeakers in a central cluster above the front edge of the chancel riser.

The loudspeaker (or loudspeakers) are selected to provide pattern coverage over the entire seating area without putting acoustic energy on the walls, floor or ceiling. When we put sound on people, it is largely absorbed and only minimal reflections continue elsewhere in their journey about the room.

When the pattern coverage is poorly designed, putting acoustic energy on highly reflective surfaces such as walls, floors and ceilings, the reflected sound can pass the listener’s ears several times, creating a lack of enunciation and speech intelligibility.

A properly designed central cluster allows the sound to reach the listener only once, thereby creating the most concise possible listening situation. In many sanctuaries, however, there are physical limitations such as low ceilings or tall crosses that require an alternate consideration.

Read More from Jon Baumgartner's article at: Pro Sound Web: News & Information for the Audio Professional.