Hello,
I am doing sound at a church here in ATL. For the past few months I have been dialing in the system and have a very good sound (no feedback, clear and accurate voices, processing etc. on point). I am sitting in the space an hour before service. Mics are tested and everything is fine... Until service starts. Then I hear a high mid steady feedback loop in the room (around 2k but probably had some upper range harmonics). I figured out quickly it was not the system (after strategically muting the mains and even listening assists when there were gaps in the service. I made sure to do all of this while I heard a hum so I could hear if any change occurred). So I got the house systems guru for the church and asked if it was a damper on our Air Control (the things a beast). We walked the space where the sound was coming from and NOTHING!! Not a 60Hz tone so we could rule out electrical rather quickly. The only thing left was the organ. When service was over, I checked to make sure organ was still on, but by then the sound had gone away...
So... All of this backstory to say that I think it was someone's hearing aids up in the balcony which when in feedback was projected out into the space (Loud upstairs but quiet underneath the balcony).
Question... 1) How have you dealt with tracking down the dear mother or father with a malfunctioning hearing aid during service and 2) What has your team done to inform the congregation about this?
This is the first time I have ever had this problem in over 15 years of doing this thing, but now realize this is actually a thing and am scratching my head on how to logistically (and softly) address this problem (which seems to occur somewhat regularly although I have only heard this today).
Thanks all!