Imagine if you will a church that needs to upgrade its facility but feels the need to maintain the history of what has been built over the years. To do the nearly impossible and build a new building where the old one stood without first tearing the old one down you must build a new one…………….from the inside out.

The story is not as unusual as it may seem. Budget always plays a role and tearing down the old building and rebuilding involved a hefty regulatory expense that was an additional burden on the congregation. So, the general contractor had the brilliant idea to just do a renovation. A massive renovation, but a renovation nonetheless! They literally rebuilt the building from the inside out. Mighty impressive!

Since the entire old building was gone there was, of course, a need to upgrade all of the systems in the facility including audio and video. This is where things went a bit awry. Perhaps this is where I should’ve used the Twilight Zone reference, but the leadership of the church decided it was a good idea to just go down to the local music store and buy some portable speakers, a mixing device (can’t bring myself to call it a console) with no faders, and some pre-made cables to “install” in the new beautifully renovated space. Needless to say, this approach lacked essential elements – design, planning, and any semblance of system integration.

I’m in no way trying to denigrate these fine folks. As with most things, budget drives a lot of decisions and I’m sure they thought they would save money by just doing it themselves. Funny how no one ever says that about the HVAC or the electrical work. Anyway…..

I’m also in no way trying to denigrate music store employees. My second and third jobs in high school were working at music stores! I shop at music stores and have friends that work at music stores. But, let’s be honest, those guys (and gals) aren’t pro AV designers and integrators. They may be great musicians and great salespeople and very knowledgeable about their areas of expertise. With rare exception, however, they don’t know how to design a sound system much less a video or acoustics system.

As it happened, I ran into the pastor at a school event where I was manning the mixing desk. We started talking about tech and that’s where I learned about his church. He was telling me about their plans for video presentation and that’s where I initially became involved. They had no plan for how to get the video to the displays, so I ended up selling him a couple of sets of extenders and a distribution amp. Then we got talking about streaming systems. They had no real plan or understanding of how to put together a multi-camera system and I was able to provide them with a design and get them into a good, simple system.

When we went to pull the cable for the cameras the GC pulled me aside and said (in whispered tones) “would you be willing to just take this over? We need someone who understands what’s really needed and who can just get it done.” That was a bit unexpected, but we were happy to accommodate and hopefully help to make the final outcome clean and functional.

The original “plan” was to have the mixing device on the stage and just controlled by an iPad. While there are certainly applications where this type of setup is good and acceptable, supporting a live band is not one of them. They had decided that the pre-made cables they had would reach that far and that was what mattered.

Ultimately, we were able to convince them to relocate the mixer to the tech booth and we pulled cable from the stage to the booth for inputs, outputs, and returns. We were also able to relocate the loudspeakers to a far better location so they will better cover the room. They still aren’t the right boxes for the room, but since they had already purchased and used them it made financial sense to make use of them now with the understanding they can always be changed out later. We also added floor pockets to the stage and input plates to the back wall of the stage to keep things clean.

In the midst of these changes and additions we accidentally found out there was going to be a confidence monitor on the back wall! There had been no plan for how to get signal there and no plan for how it might integrate with the camera in the same general area. Thankfully, we found out before the drywall was installed and were able to pull wire and purchase another extender.

There will still be a few issues with this system, and I believe that the church tech guys will figure these out fairly quickly. While it is not uncommon to control a system with an iPad it is not terribly easy for someone who is unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the app to quickly make adjustments and actual mixing can be difficult. The speakers and locations are far from ideal and may well cause some issues, especially until the system is really dialed in.

That said, we were able to catch some things and make changes early enough to keep them from becoming an issue. Ultimately, they are going to be ok. You have to ask, though, how much better could it have been if a professional was involved from the very beginning? Before a single wall was taken down or a single nail was driven.

One thing that is often overlooked is the sheer amount of work that goes into design for a truly integrated AV system. There is a reason you hire a professional to handle many things in construction. Because they will know things that you will never even consider! In this case, the customer had no concept of building cables to proper length on site or how to even get signal from one place to another. They hadn’t considered loudspeaker dispersion and, therefore, proper locations. There was no consideration for what would happen if the wireless connection between the mixing device and iPad failed or how they would cope with that should it occur. Things a professional should deal with right up front.

I know hiring a pro can be a bit daunting because you may not know what to look for to confirm they are a legitimate contractor. Consider the following in your hiring process.

• Invite them to your facility. If they are not willing to come then mark them off your list.
• They should take time to get to know you and what it is you do in your worship services. They can’t design systems to really meet your needs without knowing what you do.
• They should be willing to provide a good description of the system they design and be able to explain why they have chosen the gear they have.
• They should be able to provide references and you should reach out to those references.
• They should offer training on the back end and service after the sale.

If you follow these suggestions then you can avoid the situation described above and you and your church won’t be the subject of the next Twilight Zone themed article. Or will you………..?