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Phoenix Technologies specialise in church audio system installation.
Our designers will engineer your church audio system for maximum audio intelligibility.
This page describes how we maximise the intelligabiliy of our systems.
For information on our installation service, and for a quote, please go to our
church audio home page.
Need a church sound system ?
We offer a full installation service for all your
church needs.
Click here
for prices and information.
Phoenix Technologies offer a full church audio design and installation service.
Having installed systems in many clients (see our
list of clients)
we are now leaders in church audio design.
Listed below are our principles of church audio design. Please see our
church sound system home page
for prices and information on our installation service.
Church Audio Design principle
Sound re-enforcement is very simple in theory: pick up the desired sound through a
microphone and broadcast it throughout the area in question at a higher level.
In practice, however, there are always obstacles that will hinder us in achieving our
desired goal in audio design.
At this stage, it is worth pausing for a moment to consider what, specifically, is our
goal in relation to church sound system design?
This goal can be stated quite simply: that every person within a given area,
in this case a church, can hear and understand what is being said.
It is the intelligibility which is critical in good sound system design- there is no
point in amplification if the resultant sound, although loud, cannot easily be understood.
This phenomenon
is commonly encountered in railway stations: loud but unintelligible. This does not make
good sound system design.
Secondary goals
Having achieved our primary goal of intelligibility, we can consider secondary aims:
ease of use and aesthetic compatibility among others.
There is little point in having a sound system which is superbly intelligible, but
requires a full-time sound engineer to continuously monitor and adjust the
equipment. In certain situations - large live music events, for example,
this is unavoidable, but for church use, the goal is ultimate simplicity:
switch the system on, speak into the microphone(s). No adjustments whatsoever.
Modern equipment is now reliable and sophisticated enough that this goal can
easily be met. Most of the systems we have designed have a single on/off switch
for the entire equipment stack, and all levels are pre-set by us, requiring no
further attention. The system is switched on before a service, and switched off
afterwards - no more!
Regarding aesthetics: once, speakers were only available as large black or
wooden cabinets; microphones were bulky. Now, microphones are generally miniaturized
on thin goosenecks, making them virtually invisible in use. Speakers are available in
a range of colours and finishes to blend in with most decor, as well as being a good
deal more compact than previously, ensuring that an installation can be as unobtrusive
as possible.
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