Recommendation?

[Stevie Nature]

We finally moved into our new building. We're having a few problem acoustically most of which is based on the room's shape I believe. It's about 35' wide and 70'. The two mains we're using are on stands in the front. The problems we're having are a lot of echo and there's a lot of sound in the front and not a lot of sound in the back. I've had people suggest getting speakers about halfway up the room. My only thought is that with no delay it would only multiply the echo issue. We're also looking into raising the speaker possible mounting them to either wall so the sound could get up and over the first few rows. Anyway, I'm kind of at a loss here. Please let me know what you guys think.

[inworship]

We finally moved into our new building. We're having a few problem acoustically most of which is based on the room's shape I believe. It's about 35' wide and 70'. The two mains we're using are on stands in the front. The problems we're having are a lot of echo and there's a lot of sound in the front and not a lot of sound in the back. I've had people suggest getting speakers about halfway up the room. My only thought is that with no delay it would only multiply the echo issue. We're also looking into raising the speaker possible mounting them to either wall so the sound could get up and over the first few rows. Anyway, I'm kind of at a loss here. Please let me know what you guys think.

That is a long way to throw for a conventional speaker. What are your mains? What, if any, is your budget to fix this? How tall are your ceilings?

A quick solution is to do what you have said. Raise the speakers up and point them down to the congregation. It will make your direct listening area smaller though.

A long term solution would be to either purchase another set and a simple processor for delay or to look at an inexpensive array system that would throw from front to rear. Anything long term and short term for that matter would be serviced well if you got someone involved in your area that is qualified to consult you. Even just an hour with them may answer a lot of what ifs.

[dtpuga]

Delays would help with overall volume, you could cut the front mains down a bit and let the delays fill in the back half of the room's sound. This will let you get a more consistent sound level throughout. Moving the mains up higher is only a minor improvement because you will still need to crank them for the people in the back to hear well. You definitely would need a delay processor for this to work right.

If you have a lot of reverb in the room, that would only help a little bit with the reverb issue. In our first facility we had a ton of issues with that. Putting anything soft on your walls will help if you can't invest in acoustical treatments. Every room is unique, if it is a big enough issue I would recommend bringing in a 'pro' from your area and let him try to sell you something.

Hope this helps,
-Travis

[garyhodges]

I agree with the guys here about putting in at least one set of delayed speakers. The first step in acoustical treatment that I would suggest would be to put absorptive panels on the upper part of the rear wall. Probably part of the problem in hearing in the back of the auditorium is caused by destructive reflections off that wall conflicting with the direct sound from the speakers. That quick fix along with delayed speakers would make a world of difference and give a much warmer feel to the room.

[Stevie Nature]

What would you guys recommend to absorb the sound. The only stuff I've seen specifically made for this is a sort of ugly panel type of thing. My wife is on the decorating team. I'm not sure that would fly. :eek: But seriously we've done a lot to make our build look nice and I'd hate to undo all of that with some ugly type of thing on the back wall. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[dtpuga]

Hmmm, I wish I had a great answer for you. We are almost in our new building and have been dealing with the same issues. Sound quality vs. building appearance. We tried to find a happy medium and have yet to experience the results. As for "pretty acoustic paneling," I don't know of any. They make some that is funky and MAYBE artsy. We ended up using some in our main room in lieu of sheetrock, but only above about 14 feet. It doesn't look bad like that, the fabric matches the wall color, you can see seams though. You really want the treatments to be closer to the head height of the audience for it to be most effective though.

Other soft materials WILL make a difference though. One place I was running sound years ago used to put a quilt of the nativity scene on the wall behind the praise team. We ALWAYS had better sound around the holidays because that quilt absorbed a lot of the monitor mix instead of letting it reflect off the wall and back out front.

Get creative when you look at your room. Are there places in the ceiling to hang things from? Is there something soft you could treat some of your walls with? And, of course, you could always try to bring in a 'pro.'

Hope this helps,
-Travis

[worshiptrench]

If your architect specs it you can get almost any custom fabric coloring in the world. You just need to want it enough to pay a goofy price for the look. We are in our current room.

[Stevie Nature]

Yeah, I told my wife to talk to our decor team about it. We're planning on putting some kind of curtain behind us on the stage, and I've talked to her about some kind of wall hangings in the back. We'll see what they come up with. (Too bad it's not like my charismatic days with all the banners all over the place. :D)

Also, about the delay speakers. In a room as small as ours is it even necessary to put them on a delay or can we just get a couple of speaker a couple about halfway back? Our room is only like 70' total. The chairs end like 60' back. Thanks for all the info.

[Rocky Presley]

30' ft. allows for a good amount of delay time, about 26 milliseconds if my calculation is right. One big thing that can kill you is phase. Your speakers can actually work against one another if they are not properly delayed. IKf you do not have phasing, which you will most likely have, you will still be hearing one speaker source that is behind the source focused to your listening area. Your system processor might already have the ability to delay, unless you went with an analogue processor.

Acoustical materials can be attractive if you install them properly and choose the right fabric. Sounds like your wife has a handle on that one!

[NLoomis]

This is a good cautionary tale for the rest of us. We need rooms that are conducive to the clear understanding of both the spoken word and music. Yet, we generally build pretty rooms.

Involve an acoustical engineer from day one in your building projects and it helps to avoid these issues.

Also, realize that the closer your people are to the sound source, the clearer. This means delay rings. Nasty echo means some kind of absorption material.

Nathan