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[Benjamin Gingerich]

I am collecting the worst of the worst for an upcoming article. Looking for tragic things we have witnessed in churches that took it upon themselves to install their own systems. Not wanting to embarrass anyone. Don't need specifics, just the most unbelievable encounters with church sound systems.

Allow me to demonstrate...

A service call to fix a system in rural Georgia found me standing in the center aisle, unable to contain the horrified shock on my face. Directly above the pulpit was a sheet of plywood with about 25-30 car stereo speakers screwed to it.

Later, in about the same area, I found another church with two Fender guitar amps hanging on the back wall from coat hooks. They claimed it didn't get loud enough to cover 250 seats.

There are plenty more. But, let's hear yours...

Hey Eric
I could give you a few,
This is one we just finished a few weeks ago and is power related. We did a full AVL in North Georgia.

They had three phase power coming into the building and split out to three old dimmer panels that had been converted into straight power panels. The church didn't tell us or the electrician's that a DIY relay system had been installed in the 80s, that was wired into another panel in another closet, all of the outputs from each of these breakers in the old dimmer went to this relay system.

After the electrician got us outlets at all of our points we started powering audio gear and hanging lighting fixtures, changing the load on this 1980s diy system caused the relays to fail and to close whenever load was added to them and in turn sending 360v to each outlet, the only time it would show 360v is when there was load on the circuit (multi-meter read 120 until load was added)and the electrician only provided single outlets so it took some time to figure out.
The pastor later informed us that he knew about the relay issue and they had similar issues in other places and didn't tell us because he knew that it wasn't up to code and the whole campus was done that way by his brother 20+ years ago.
8 lighting fixtures, 1 dmx splitters, 1 Jands CL controller, 2 power amps and a Protea fried.

[Stephen Swaffer]

Benjamin,

I am curious to know how you wound up with that voltage from failed relays.  OT for this thread-so I asked it in the AC power forum under "Odd voltage readings."

[M. Erik Matlock]

Has anyone else ever attempted to setup wireless mics inside a faraday cage? I had the absolute pleasure of fighting the weirdest dropouts and interference for hours, while setting up 6-8 units in a rural church.
At some point, just short of losing my mind, a member mentioned that there had been a radio station in the building before.
A quick search of the attic space over the sanctuary revealed what looked like a million feet of old copper in random coils and piles. (think of the snake pit scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark)
I never would have guessed it was there or that it would respond like it did.

Another one built a sound booth inside the peak of a 29-foot cathedral ceiling, at the very back of a huge sanctuary. Forget how close to impossible it was to tune the system or mix from there. The big issue was a dude my size making 200 trips up those stairs.

Another church had to change the building plans, after it was already wired. I returned once the drywall and paint crews were done, to find a fire rated window installed in front of the sound booth. Completely sealed and virtually sound proof. The only solution we could reach was studio monitors mounted on each side, tuned to resemble the sound of the room. Not ideal.

Another fresh build was on piers, not a slab, over a lovely Georgia red clay slope. Fortunately, it rained hard the night before we got there and we only had one day to finish the wiring.
The front drainage was still not finished and the water all went under the building.
All wiring had to go under the floor. I was in the mud. Lots of it. Seemed to be a foot deep. We had to keep one clean guy in the sanctuary and me under the floor. Solo mud wrestling.

[Eric du Toit]

I don't know if either qualifies as a horror story, but when a church contractor/architect decides that no acoustic advice is necessary, wanted, or will be tolerated on a 32' ceiling, 800 seat + 200 balcony space, the end result is a sound "booth" at the very back of the balcony high enough that you can almost touch the 32' ceiling with an RT60 value so high that speech intelligibility is difficult.  Names and places will not be given to protect the guilty, but with the advent of the internet, research, and people who care, there is no excuse for poor sound and rejecting good advice in a 1000 seat space.   I suspect that the right consultant would have also warned that the sight lines from piano/organ and orchestra to the music director were non-existent, but why would instrumentalists need to see the music director?!

[Frank DeWitt]

It seems that with all purchases, the more you know, the better chance of getting what you want for a fair price.  In our case, we spent a lot of time learning sound.  Attended some seminars, joined forums, listened a lot and more.  When it came time for a new system, we already had a good relationship with a local company.  We a called them.  They came out, tested the room, made recommendations and guided us through the buy and install.  (They sold us some equipment and recommended that we buy and install other parts our self.)

We are very pleased with the system and the vendor.  Our leadership knows and understands the value of the company we hired.

[ProSoundWeb Community]