Can you start a campaign for better acoustics in the church? Better speaker system? Wireless headsets for those who are hard of hearing?
I DO understand this is a concern for the elderly, especially in echoing churches. But the solution is NOT to send the children away… clearly that strikes a nerve.
Fix the first problem, don’t make more.
Acoustics in church buildings is a complicated issue: Traditional Church architecture gives very long reverberation times. Traditional church music takes advantage of this, ans does not sound as well in more modern acoustically “dead” spaces.
It can be architecturally inappropriate to deaden down the older church spaces, especially where that would require covering up sacred art on the walls or ceilings.
The most traditional method of ensuring good speech intelegibilty is the very slow delivery that is shown in many characatures on priests and vicars. any one who is reading or speaking in your church needs to be TAUGHT how to read or speak like this. It is the only way to ensure that they can be understood. - all other methods can only add to this technique - not replace it.
Technology that can help:
People who have hearing aids can use Induction Loops when they are installed. This technology uses a very primitive “radio” type signal to broadcast straight from a priest or other speakers microphone to the hearing aid of the listeners. This by-passes the echo and noise in the church. - It requires two things:
- there is a microphone system in place or for one to be installed.
- the loop must be installed correctly and tested extensively. signs need to be given to the users of the system telling them where the system does work and where it does not work.
For other people (not using hearing aids), the use of a mic and loudspeakers can help in medium to large spaces to raise the sound level of the speakers voices. If the big problem is one of echo this type of system can make it worse if it’s not installed sensitively to the acoustic environment of the building - especially on days when the church is nearly empty. In very long churches it can be necessary to introduce delay circuits into the system so that the sound arriving from the loudspeaker nearest the listeners near the back of the church does no arrive so much sooner than the sound arriving naturally or from the front loudspeakers that the sound from the front sounds like an echo.
This is needed if the distance between the Altar / Pulpet to the furthest pew is greater than 50 Ft (15m). This requires professional guidance from a specialist in this type of echoy environment.
Loud speaker systems areuseful in carrying a speakers voice to the back of a large church. - meaning the speaker does not need to shout to be heard.
They are useful in carrying a voice over noise made by children and other members of the congregation.
Acoustic treatment of the space.- this is a first line treatment in Halls and spaces where music does not matter. also very usefull in spaces where there is no need to protect the sacred art that went into creating a Gothic, Byzantine or other building of sacred architectural merit.
This is achieved by placing soft materials on the ceilings and walls, and possibly carpet on the floors. depending on the tradition, cushions can be used on the seats or pews. (this makes unoccupied pews have less acoustic effect compared to full ones)
The simplest system is to install the type of Grid based ceiling commonly seen in offices. - however if the ceiling is high treatments will be needed on the walls as well. Wall treatments can be wood or metal panels with holes in them and mineral wool behind, or fabric stretched over mineral wool. The fabric option allows (finance permitting) the treatment to be hidden inside tapestry or canvas prints. - however the surface areas required to achieve a good result are large.
The introduction of a lot of acoustic absorption would have the knock-on effect of then requiring a MORE POWERFULL speaker system as thy act on the sound in the room the way that black velvet drapes act on the light in a room - they soak it up.
Cost:
Most parishes need to be self funding. - not reliant on the diocese to fund their upgrades and maintainance .
All of the above concepts cost significant money - especially if they are to be “Done Right”. Installing loudspeakers and induction loops are likely to be affordable to most parishes - but would probably require financial planning and may need to be saved up for. A small system might cost less than $1000 (but never be tempted to buy “cheap” parts - they won’t to the job they’re supposed to). If the building is not big the necessary skills are widely available.
The most expensive option, - by a very long way - is adding useful amounts of acoustic absorption to make a space less echo. - This will run to tens of Thousands of dollars for anything other than a tiny church building (which probably dosn’t need the treatment).
IN the UK where I live (and professionally advise on acoustics in buildings) the cost of ceiling or wall treatments typically range from £20 - £300 per square meter. Installation costs may double that. Design costs (unless you trust a product supplier to do the design right without charging for the design) will probably be in the £1000-£2000 region but could be a lot more.
The cost of treatment to 100m^2 of ceiling in a hall where a mistake had been made during refurbishment (an acoustic ceiling was replaced with painted dry-wall with no thought for the concequences) ran to some £5000
($7700). (to do it properly) This was able to be halved by cutting some corners and sacrificing the final appearance to something that is visibly “Bodged” (using cheap materials in a way that they are not designed) - so it looks like a shoddy DIY job- but it achieves the necessary goal.
