Salem-based church sound specialists Alpha Sound have successfully designed and installed several NEXO sound systems in traditional and evangelical churches in their home state of Oregon and across the United States.

We asked Alpha Sound Lead Engineer Devin Sheets to share his Top Ten Tips for church sound system designers and installers.

Let Your Demo Do the Talking

Hearing is believing, and a powerful demo can replace weeks or months of emails, calls, pamphlets and technical jargon. Setting up a temporary system in the client’s venue or inviting them to a recent installation showcases your work in a way that words cannot. But a word of caution: your demos should be top-notch, so clear and compelling to the client that every passing week with their old system feels unbearable. Since highly curated demos can sometimes feel disingenuous, also encourage clients to visit past installations – even on their own time – for an unfiltered, authentic experience.

Understand Your Client

Integrators sometimes get caught up in showcasing technology rather than addressing what the client truly needs. Does this church require a 32-channel digital console at FOH, or would a four-button wall panel with iPad access for special events be more practical? Will they benefit from hundreds of adjustable global presets, or would a simple, resettable system with a few safeguarded controls work just as well? Some clients really appreciate things like meticulous equipment rack organization and cable labelling, but if not, a savvy competitor down the road may paint those 48 billable hours as a scam. For liturgical churches in particular, we have found that simpler tends to be better, as most of the operators are relatively non-technical folk, and the best UI often resembles those of a conference space or restaurant.

Spoken Word is Top Priority

90% of what happens in a service or mass is spoken word. An integrator’s top priority should be to ensure that as many people as possible, including those doing the speaking, can hear and understand the words clearly. While music is also a high priority, problems with vocal intelligibility receive the first and fiercest complaint. Follow this simple rule: put sound only where the people are. If speakers are throwing sound disproportionately on the walls and ceiling, this decreases intelligibility in at least two critical ways. First, the ratio of direct to reverberant sound decreases. Second, especially with heavily distributed systems, the accumulated time differences from room reflections becomes psychoacoustically difficult to parse from the direct sound, even if the ratio itself isn’t too terrible. For elderly church members, this is compounded with slight hearing loss, so the importance of clarity for the spoken word cannot be overstated.

Embrace Innovation

Standards exist for good reason, but some of our best solutions have come from counterintuitive critical listening experiments. For example, when it comes to vocal intelligibility in large reverberant churches, we’ve found that a main line array system covering the majority of the room like a sonic laser beam outperforms the standard approach using numerous distributed speakers. In smaller venues, fewer yet strategically placed column speakers both simplify the setup and enhance intelligibility. When acoustic treatments aren’t feasible and gain-before-feedback is a concern, we rely on our new A.I. driven de-feedback method which prevents ringing and system-induced reverberation from sensitive podium and lavalier microphones. These mics must often be positioned near or even in front of speakers, but this new technology essentially acts as acoustic damping and provides a viable solution to vocal intelligibility when physical changes to the venue acoustics or speaker/mic placements aren’t an option.

Immerse Yourself in the Client’s Perspective

Too many integrators install systems and leave without experiencing them as the end users do. Attending services or events after installation helps us hear what works, and what needs refining. This direct involvement lets us make real-world adjustments and also show clients that we’re committed to their experience. Also, try to avoid splitting responsibilities across multiple vendors. In our experience, dividing design, installation, and service leads to miscommunication and finger-pointing when issues arise. Full and singular accountability ensures every element works as intended and builds trust with clients who know we’ll stand by our work as a whole.

Balance Precision with Creativity

Some parts of installation require exact measurements, like line array angles or notch filter frequencies. Other aspects allow room for creativity, like determining mic levels or EQ adjustments for the choir. Knowing when to focus on numbers versus sound can be the difference between an adequate and an exceptional result. For example, let your tech-focused engineers manage matrix mixers and networking, but consider involving someone with musical experience for fine-tuning the mix. We spend a lot of time switching between various microphones in the setup to ensure smooth timbral transitions, so the same person talking or singing on different mics produces little variation. For this, we happen to combine both methods, first measuring each mic response and adjusting with EQ through software, then further adjusting the EQ based solely through listening.

Recognize When to Apply Utility or Artistry

Audio equipment isn’t invisible, and a successful integrator considers aesthetics. The approach for each aspect of a project varies – sometimes utility, other times artistry. Does this client need cables hidden meticulously, or is functional visibility sufficient? Is it fine that the speakers are factory white, or should we take the time to dig up the venue’s wall paint sitting in storage? Speaking of painting, consider the difference between house painters and portrait artists; they may work with similar tools and materials, but confusing the two can be disastrous. Balancing practicality with polish demonstrates that your team can meet both functional and aesthetic needs.

Details Matter

Your installation technician might not see the connection between how poorly they screwed in the wires to one of hundreds of cable connectors, and why the entire system lost audio during Easter five years later. These details matter, and you don’t know ahead of time what tiny problem is perhaps going to sour your company name forever. Does the down angle on the line array system need to be -4.0 or -4.5 degrees? At 150ft away, this could mean the difference between an entire section of seating having high frequency coverage or not, and we only rented the lift for one day. Allowing the client to save costs by sharing wireless channels may seem efficient but can lead to operational confusion down the line. When some new untrained staff member leaves both mics on at the same time and it ruins a Sunday morning, there is unlikely to be a public announcement the following week that it wasn’t actually your company’s fault.

Provide Frictionless, Accessible Support

Offering accessible, low-cost support encourages clients to call with minor issues instead of letting them pile up. We’ve seen competitors lose business because clients were unwilling to pay service fees for small problems, resulting in issues compounding over time. Instead, we install more expensive higher-quality systems up front that by nature need minimal upkeep, but offer free support for minor needs as they arise. This ensures clients resolve issues early and that our systems continue to reflect well on our company for many decades. For remote clients, consider VPN system access and binaural mic monitoring setups for troubleshooting. If you can’t offer support, someone locally will (because that’s less friction) and they’ll get their competitive foot in the door.

Do Not Forsake the Livestream

Especially since the Covid era, more and more churches are “going online” with live streamed content. These days, it is common for people to check out a few live streams from local churches before deciding to visit one for the first time, making the live stream their first impression of that community. Does it sound professional? Does it sound warm and inviting? Make sure the audio stream has some stereo content, which is hard of course with a mix that may be mostly mono sources, but consider using two miniature condenser mics placed above the main seating area, spaced about 8” apart – the approximate distance of human ears – for a natural soundfield. Make sure they are up and out of the pattern of the main speaker system, and not near any other sound producing objects such as HVAC vents or doors and windows. Pan them hard left and right in the livestream and bring them up until they “hug” the mix. Audio engineers often dry up the livestream a bit too much, but normal people like having a sense of the room and the people in it, coughs and sneezes and all.

These are the opinions of Devin Sheets / Alpha Sound, and not necessarily of NEXO.

For further information on Alpha Sound, visit: www.alphasound.tech