Mission: Audio Upgrade 1994

Room Intelligibility Fix

Late last year a church approached us about upgrading their audio system as they were encountering issues with intelligibility. They had an old system that was installed back in 1994. It was originally designed to cover both the main area of the sanctuary and a balcony section. However, the balcony did not end up being used for seating which has led to the old speakers having poor coverage in the main seating area and a lack of intelligibility. P.S. that’s the 2nd time I’ve used that word, so I should probably explain what I mean by that. Intelligibility is a fancy word for how clearly you can hear something. Often, it’s most noticeable when someone is speaking, but it refers to the overall clarity of the sound system. 

The main goals of adding a new sound system were to improve intelligibility and additionally improve the usability of the system. They wanted to make running sound easier with a new board and to quote the Tech Director there, “Make it less intimating to walk up too”. 
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When we first began designing this system, our focus was on the speaker choice and placement. The original placement of the old speakers was not a good option just because of the height and location in relation to the main seating area. With the more traditional look of the church and stage, we also wanted to take the esthetics of the room into consideration when choosing where to place the speakers, and what speakers to choose. We choose Danley, our favorite speaker designer, models SBH20 and SBH10. These are ultra-compact column shaped cabinets. These gave us a small footprint and unobtrusive speaker with a lot of pattern control. The room was quite wide so the SBH10 was the main speakers on stage and the SBH20’s were mounted on the walls to either side of the stage allowing us to have a very even coverage of the room. We paired these with a pair of THMini15 subwoofers to make sure we provided a full range of sound. 

Now I know what you are thinking “You put speakers on stage?? What, are you crazy?? How will you contain the feedback??” Because these speakers are specifically designed to be on a stage, with a little bit of tuning, you can adjust it so you can walk up to the speaker with a microphone, and you won’t have any feedback. (This is just one of the many reasons we love these speakers!)

Back in the tech booth, we made an upgrade too. We replaced the old, first-generation digital soundboard with a Yamaha TF5. The Yamaha TF5 has 33 faders giving them a nice large work surface. The TF also comes with a couple really cool features. One of them is Dan Dugan Automixer and the other one is OneKnob. Dugan automixing can be applied to the first eight channels, automatically raising the gain of active microphone inputs, lowering the gain of inactive ones, and adjusting each to create a consistent overall mix level. The Dugan automatic mixing algorithm maintains a safe feedback margin, always ensuring sound of high quality and clarity.

The Yamaha TF5 also has the OneKnob feature as an option on the EQ and compressor. In one of the OneKnob modes, vocal EQ decisions are somewhat automatic. As you turn the knob, the console starts to apply EQ to help clarify vocals. Keep turning the knob and the equalization changes, not just in the amount, but also in what frequencies are being adjusted. Another OneKnob mode for EQ takes any changes you’ve already made yourself and simply enhances or decreases them. As the OneKnob function works for getting compression dialed in too, you still have full control of all typical compression parameters, but sometimes turning a single, “intelligent” knob just makes life a lot simpler, especially if you have a volunteer-based organization. 

This audio upgrade was challenging but rewarding in the end to hear the difference for in the main room. Replacing a quarter century old audio setup was not only satisfying, but will make a big difference for the church as they continue to grow and move forward.