I have volunteered to administer, maintain, and upgrade our church's sound system. Just so you know my modest SR skills mostly concern portable systems (frat houses and bars) and are 20 years out of date.
So, I've been picking through the tangle of cables piled on and around the mixer. The system is a typical Carvin package: 24x4 Mixer, 15-band stereo equalizer, one big power amp, one small power amp, and a pair of 832 15-inch 2-way 90x45 black fuzzy speakers. I'm positive it was purchased by someone who thought it would solve all the church's sound problems, oblivious to the fact that sound systems need to be
installed.
The system feeds back at the drop of a hat, despite the fact that everything that can be turned down has been, most notably the equalizer, where many sliders are all the way down, and none are above about -8dB.
It's not hard to see where problem numero uno lies, but I made a drawing anyway to illustrate (see attached JPG).
The speakers are on the roof of the sacristy, and yes, that's a brick wall they're aimed at, between them and the congregation.
No one in the congregation is in their coverage area, but they do an excellent job of firing sound onto the roof.
Don't let that lower light blue line fool you - if you look at the plan view, the vocal mikes are within the stage left speaker's nominal distribution. It's no wonder the system howls before the power amps' green "Signal" LEDs even think about lighting up.
OK, so I've read enough on this board and elsewhere to know the right way to go about this: hire a consultant or design/install firm, have them model the room and select speakers. Then install the speakers, analyze and tune the room with a 31-band EQ or DSP, then lock it up and throw away the key.
I agree with all that, especially if we have the budget (which we probably don't). But I can't help thinking: the system is
SO bad that whatever I (a semi-informed amateur) do, it would be such a huge improvement that most people wouldn't miss the additional benefits that could be gained by going the "pro" route. I can't help it, I'm an 80:20 kinda guy - but does that line of thinking seem to make sense in this (rather extreme) case?
Once I got the drawing done, I moved the speakers around on paper to look at some possibilities. Actually the 832's aren't all that bad if positioned properly (as long as we're looking at colored lines on a piece of paper. If we're
listening to them, who knows?). I could post the results for discussion if you want, but I'm not really considering flying the 832's. (But trust me - if I did, I'd hire a rigger - I may be an 80:20 kinda guy, but I'm not stupid.)
I guess what I'm looking for is some suggestions on a path forward. Keep in mind that I'm an engineer, just not an
audio engineer. Is it possible (likely?) that I could use my cheesy little CAD drawings to lay out a system, fly some new mid-priced installable-rather-than-portable cabinets up there in a center cluster, maybe add a sub, and get decent results? We might even spring for a 31-band, though I'm not sure about getting some one to analyze the room and set it up.
BTW, the system is presently set-it-and-forget-it with the board up with the band. The Pastor wants to move it to the back and build a booth, but right now we have no one to run it, so that would be sort of pointless. However, this is another discussion of another day.
Critique away! (and thanks... I'm amazed at the level of knowledge, professionalism, and willingness to help on this board).