What Did He Say?

Dec 12

Small rooms can be equally problematic to their larger counterparts. Any PA system placed in a small room can seem loud, not because of the operator, but because of how excited the room is. When the volume in the room starts to rise, more PA support is needed, and more of the room is excited. This circle continues until even Popeye can “stands no more.”

Many view acoustic treatment from different perspectives. Some see it as an eyesore. After all, cathedrals never had treatment. What if the Sistine Chapel covered the paintings with lapidary to reduce the reverb tail to 1.5s? Some see treatment as a luxury akin to moving lights. Paint on the walls will do fine so long as the overhead lighting allows for reading my Bible. As with all great projects, it’s always great to begin with the end in mind, but sometimes that is not reality.

At Avenue, our teams are always looking for ways to creatively improve the user experience in alignment with the church’s stewardship plans. Recently, our professionals modeled and designed an aesthetically complementary acoustic design. The church was confident that their team would install the acoustic material. This dramatically lowered the project's total cost by controlling sunk costs such as travel.

After the installation, our team joined with the church to retune the PA system to the new acoustic properties of the space. The results were as planned—dramatic. We were told stories of how, before treatment, the Pastor spoke quickly and dynamically and was frequently unintelligible. After the opening day of this renovated space, the comments were crystal clear, just like the Pastor.