So it begins…

This is the start of what will hopefully be a running commentary as I oversee several sound system upgrades at my church where I am currently on staff as the resident sound engineer. My job is to maintain and manage everything sound related that happens in our building including mixing, supervising a team of volunteer techs, equipment maintenance, and ongoing team training. Currently I oversee sound systems in four venues on our main campus ranging in seating capacity. Our Programming Room seats about 100, our multi-purpose Activity Center seats about 350, our multi-purpose Gym will seat around 900, and our Main Auditorium seats 2000 (1500 floor, 500 balconies). We are currently in the process of upgrading our Main Auditorium sound system. Over the next three years we’ll also add a new children’s wing featuring a new Children’s Theatre, add on a Chapel, and refit our Activity Center. So basically over the next three years we’re getting four new sound systems. For now I’m going to focus on the Main Auditorium in progress.

The Main Auditorium project began late in 2004. After several months of dissatisfaction with the sound quality in our weekly services and events, it was decided we needed to bring in some experts to model the acoustics of the system and room. Their results confirmed what our team already felt: while our existing system worked–every week we worship the Lord and the Word gets heard–we were unable to deliver the experience we wanted to with our existing equipment. After months of debate, deliberation, and prayer, the decision was made to move forward with the recommended upgrades in mid-June.