Introduction
A Medium House of Worship may have more than one main hall or room and cater for more than 500 people. Audio would not need to be routed or isolated. Multiple speakers may be needed in the main hall and for each room or zone and a multichannel amplifier will be needed. A more complex mixer may also be required as several mics may be required as well as equalisation (EQ).
Speakers
The main hall may be large enough that multiple speakers are needed. The front of the hall would carry the bulk of the sound and the sides, rear or ceiling speakers would reinforce the sound from the front. Smaller speakers may be required in other rooms or zones.
Front of House Speakers
A column speaker would be a good choice for this as it allows a wide horizontal distribution of sound at various vertical levels. We would recommend the JBL CBT series such as the CBT-50LA-1 for £900.
Side or small room Speakers
You could use the above CBT-50LA-1 speakers or the smaller JBL Control One Pro speakers for £150 for wall mounting.
Ceiling Speakers
Ceiling speakers are a good choice to supplement front speakers if the ceiling is low enough. If the ceiling is high, smaller column or wall mounted speakers would be better. We recommend the JBL Control 26CT for £250.
Amplifiers
A multichannel amp may be required to power different rooms or areas such as the Crown CT4150 for around £1400. This is a power efficient Class-D 4 channel amplifier with 125W per channel.
Alternatively multiple 2 channel amps may be used such as the Crown XLi 800 for £300. Two amplifiers help with High Availability but heat and power consumption will increase.
For corridors and other non-critical areas a 100V Line amplifier may be useful to minimise on the cabling required. Multiple speakers can be chained together as long as the amplifier can power the total wattage of all the speakers. Some amplifiers are configurable for dual low impedance (4-8 ohm) or 100V use such as the Cloud VA2120 amp for around £450 which is a 2 channel amp and each channel can drive low impedance speakers or 100V arrays.
Mixer
A digital mixer may be used which can be remote controlled using a tablet or mobile phone such as the Midas MR12 for £400 which is suitable for smaller buildings.
The Midas MR12 is a software configurable digital mixer with DSP mixer modules that are linked together. Modules such as EQs, compressors, limiters and effects can be chained together to form a custom mixer to your requirements. As it runs on WiFi it’s easy to adjust the sound anywhere in the venue so you can quickly get the perfect sound.
If more inputs and outputs are needed there are a number of options. We’d recommend the Soundcraft Ui24R rack mount mixer for £900 for permanent installations.
This is controlled with a web page so any device such as a mobile phone, tablet or laptop can use it. It has built in effects from Lexicon, feedback elimination using AFS2, dbx compressors, Studer pre-amps, digitech amp modelling and can be connected with an ethernet cable for reliable control. It can also be connected to a PC for multi-track recording and playback.
If you need traditional faders we’d recommend the Behringer X32 series of digital mixers starting with the X32 Producer for about £1100.
This can be controlled with an app or computer so a mobile phone, tablet or PC can control it. It has 16 physical motorised faders and can control 40 channels directly. It has extensive DSP processing such as compressors, EQ, effects and can be upgraded with a Dante expansion card. It can be connected with an ethernet cable for reliable control. It can also be connected to a PC for multi-track recording and playback.
Microphones
There are two ways microphones can be used – Wired or Wireless. We recommend wired mics where possible as wireless mics are more expensive, prone to interference and batteries need to be changed or charged often.
Wired Mics
A Lapel mic is a very good way to capture speech. It’s discrete and easy to put on. We recommend the Audio Technica Pro 70 for around £130. For a Handheld mic we recommend the Shure SM58s classic microphone for around £110 with a switch. You would need a good microphone Stand for the Handheld mic which is about £75.
Radio Mics
Despite cost, range, interference and battery life issues, a radio mic gives freedom to move around without being tethered by a wire. Radio mics can be analogue or digital. Radio mics operate on 3 sets of frequencies – CH38 or CH70 for analogue and digital uses 2.4GHz/5GHz (the same as Wi-Fi). CH38 systems require a licence to operate but are less prone to interference. CH70 systems are free to use but are more prone to interference. 2.4GHz/5GHz systems are free to use also but compete with other wifi systems in the area which can be congested. Battery life is an issue as most radio mics last around 4-8 hours only.
If you need a simple mic system, we recommend Sennheiser radio mics such as the analogue Sennheiser XSW1-ME2 Ch70 Wireless radio system for around £280 or the Sennheiser XSW-D Digital Lavalier set for around £350.
Cables
We should always use good quality cable. For public buildings you must use Low Smoke Zero Halogen (LSZH or LSOH) cable by law for permanently installed cables such as speaker cables.
Speaker Cable
Speaker cable should be double insulated and should be of sufficient gauge to handle current loads from the amplifier. We recommend Van Damme 2 x 1.5mm Ecoflex install grade speaker cable for smaller runs around 10m and 2 x 2.5mm for longer runs less than 50m. Runs above 50m should use 4mm cable. 10m of 2 x 2.5mm speaker cable is about £60.
Microphone Cable
Microphone cable should be twin core shielded LSZH installation grade or at least 5mm XLR cable for direct connections to microphones.
We recommend Van Damme Digilog Ecoflex Install grade shielded audio cable for permanent installations – 10m is about £15.
For microphone and instrument cables we recommend Van Damme Classic Instrument XLR cable – 5m is about £30.
Summary
Let’s see how the system stacks up with 2 mics, 2 front, 2 side and 2 ceiling speakers:
| 2x CBT-50LA-1 column speakers | £900 |
| 1x JBL Control One Pro speakers (pair) | £150 |
| 2x JBL Control 26CT ceiling speakers | £500 |
| Crown XLi 800 amplifier for front column speakers | £300 |
| Cloud VA2120 amplifier to drive side and ceiling speakers | £450 |
| Midas MR12 Digital Mixer | £400 |
| Audio Technica Pro 70 | £130 |
| Shure SM58SE | £110 |
| 100m reel of 2 x 2.5mm speaker cable for the front, side and ceiling speakers | £570 |
| 2x Microphone cable | £60 |
| 10m Interconnecting XLR cable | £15 |
| Microphone Stand | £75 |
| Total Package Cost excluding Installation | £3660 |
We have seen that for around £3700 you can setup or upgrade your sound system to a very cost effective and high quality system. This price does exclude installation however.
Get in touch with us for further information, installation details and to see how else we can help