Hi Friends,
I got great help from this community for another church project a couple years back and so here I am again looking for ideas, input.
Here's the basics:
--Church is a historic 1890's/landmark building that required major structural, foundation work in order to preserve it and continue to use it.
-- We recently completed an 8 year 1.5M capital campaign and restoration that stretched the pockets of us 300 members.
-- Church service is in the round. Readings (lay people) and sermon (pastor) are done at the lectern position.
-- Church sanctuary dimensions= 50' by 44'
-- There is no"worship" band or mic'd singers. Small choir- 10 people, voices carry quite well in the space.
-- For the last 10 years we have done fine not mic'ing the pastor during the service at the altar. Because service is in the round-- Pastor is fairly close to all the pews and her voice carries quite well. But we now have lots and lots of children and so our 9:00 service is much "noisier" and so a lav mic for the pastor- for reinforcement would be good.
-- Note: Pastor will not wear a headset- so must use lav.
-- Currently we have Shure lectern mic and we have two EV EVID 6.2 speakers hung on wooden beam above the lectern (see picture) and they are back to back, pointing east and west and "somewhat" downward towards the pews. They are mounted @ 15' high.
-- This has worked well for the lay readings and sermon. Actually the pastor could orate/project enough for sermon even without the mic. But the mic offers "support"
and is necessary for shy lay readers who mumble.. It's also quite transparent to the listeners because the sound "feels" like it is coming from where the person speaking is.
-- For power I have used (NO LAUGHING now--please) a Yamaha 6 channel powered mixer.
This gave me the flexibility to use it for youth group in the parish hall when they have karaoke or band practice ( I have 2 Yamaha 12" speaker cabs on sticks in the hall) This thing has been indestructible- 13 years of being banged around and abused and still works.
-- BUT NOW that the church is renovated- I want to upgrade/install a system. We have consistent packed room and lots of kid noise etc during early service- so that is problem now. (a lively church is a GOOD problem!)
-- More of the members are now hard of hearing and so intelligibilty is key-- and down the road we may want to do hearing assistance in the sanctuary.
--The system must be set and forget. There is no tech team every Sunday- the pastor needs to turn it on and turn on her wireless pack and go.
-- The system cannot "interfere" visually with the architecture.
So-- I'm thinking along lines of a QSC power amp, eq and a simple 6 channel analog mixer- but keep going in circles regarding speakers-- placement.. what and where to place- Service in the round is tricky.
I appreciate ideas-- please be gentle as I'm a willing listener and appreciate learning from those who have experience in smaller scale projects like this.
Thanks in advance. I will post picture and dimensions too.
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