Is a Church Sound Standard Possible? Yes

A universal church sound standard is possible if it is based around performance and based around goals that can be consistently achieved. These performance standards are what every church wants and should have regardless of the denomination or style of worship. Each church, denomination and style or worship may have requirements above and beyond these goals, but there should be a minimum and that minimum is very much a universal requirement.

Universal requirements like coverage and intelligibility cannot be treated an optional or an extra cost. They are a must and should be kept in order for people to hear and understand the message. This is a basic universal requirment for any speech communication in a large room. Without these goals, the hit and miss results of church sound and acoustical conditions will continue within the church community.

The HIS System Standard
The HIS System Standard has been refined over the years but there have been a number of performance requirement that will never change. As long as people have ears on the side of their heads and as long as air is the final medium between a sound source and ears, these goals are not optional. Deadspots are not an option. Intelligibility where more than 10% of the words are not heard or understood are not features, they are a barrier between the audience, the ministers and other people trying to deliver God's message. These are the words that can change people's lives.

There are already hundreds or thousands of churches that already meet this HIS Standard.(Highly Intelligible church Sound system Standard. Many also surpass the standard. But they only represent about 10 to 15% of the church community. Some have met the standard by the old hit and miss approach. Some have met the standard by following many of the secular audio community goals and designed by top notch Christian and non Christian audio and acoustical experts. These are some of the Christian experts you often hear about at Christian discussion forums on the internet. Bravo for them for taking the time to share some of their expert knowledge.

Unfortunately, even the best church audio and acoustical engineers are only seeing about 10% of the church community in their local areas. The other 85 to 90% of the churches out there have bad acoustics, a poorly performing sound system or both. What is also sad is that many of these churches have been serviced by well meaning experts who don't have a clue about church sound. Between Canada and the USA, there are over 350,000 churches and there is an average of 3 people who have a direct interest in church audio and acoustics from each church. That is an audience of over one million people. Even with the best church discussion board, they would need to have over 100,000 active members to just hit 10% of the church community. I don't think any discussion board is that large yet!

Having a performance standard, even if it is not perfect and even if some of the goals cannot be met, it give everyone a starting point and an idea of what compromises they may have to live with. As a consultant, I have brought hundreds of churches up to the HIS Standard but my work and effort has been less than a drop in the bucket. Over 34,000 churches have already been serviced by hundreds of contractors, consultants and experts yet while they are doing excellent work, who is installing the failed sound system and acoustics in the other 320,000 churches? With a conservative estimate, only about 35,000 churches in North America can pass a basic live or digital speech test. Shouldn't the other 320,000 church be able to pass such basic and fundamental requirements?

Since 1985 when the HIS System Standard was first put together by a group of contractors and some church leaders (who pulled most of the standards already outlined in most of the audio and acoustical books of the day such as the first edition of Sound System Engineer by Don Davis) the performance requirements have not changed much. Some of the performance requirements are actually unique to churches and have been tested and demonstrated in many churches and have been met consistently in all kinds of spaces.

When this HIS System Standard was first introduced, it was written by laymen for the laymen of the church community.

When those who were not of the church community got hold of it, all they could do was tear it apart. This intimidation turned many church people off for further contributing to creating a meaningful document. (A lot of church people like to play with fire but they can't take the heat when it is pointed at them.) It seems that most have missed the point. Without a standard, people will keep making the same mistakes. It is part of human nature.

Year ago gas stations were built in any hodge podge manner. Then the Government wrote standards and for a while, every gas station looked the same and boring. Then a few years later we started seeing embellishments that have made many gas stations look unique and some even exceed the government standards but underneath the skin, they all met the same regulations. If anything, if there was a universal church sound standard, new and exciting development is church sound performance can come from it. Until then we can continue to expect an 85 to 90% failure rate of all new churches and new church sound systems.

Another thing that has been overlooked is that the standard was written for the average church member to be able to read it, understand it and see if their church sound system and acoustics were adequate. Most times when church use this standard and they find their church sound is not sufficient, it has encourage them to make a major investment that the Christian and Secular Pro Audio Community has been enjoying for the last 15 years. Due to the intimidation from a lot of sound experts, most churches will not admit publically that they read the HIS System Standard and the standard motivated to smake the needed investments to get things right.   Since 1995 over 400,000 people have read the HIS System Standard.  From that it would represent at least 30 to 40,000 different churches.  I wonder how many of those churches pushed their contractor to do a better job?  Even if it is just 10% that would mean over 3,000 church have upgraded their sound to a level that meets almost all of their needs. The hundreds of emails that I get every year would suggest that number could be higher.

Since 1985 there has been hundreds of churches who have installed systems that meet the HIS System Standard. Many have been installed by Turn Key Contractors and by DIY (Do It yourself) with great success. We rarely hear from the DIY community but I am sure that they are thankful for this information. Many other churches have given this standard high praises for helping them get a sound system that does meet their needs and that has been the goal all along.

The HIS System Standard is only a minimum standard from which a church sound ministry should build up from. Many audio contractors, Architects and acoustical experts design systems that are better - and we welcome that. This information is for churches that don't know what level of sound system and sanctuary room performance to expect or to ask for.


Meeting the HIS System Standard in not hard to do. It is simple enough that any church can reach it and audio contractor to meet. The HIS System Standard is performance based, not equipment based. This is meant to be written so that any church can afford a sound system that will meet their needs. It is our hope that the information provided below will help you church get the sound system they need, not what someone wants to sell you.

Is the HIS System Standard Perfect? No
Is the HIS System Standard absolute? No
Is the HIS System supported by the secular community such AES, NSCA or other professional organizations? Not yet.

Until a standard written by the church community itself is published, it seem that this standard is a good place to start. There is still room for improvement but unless others contribute to it, it will continute to be a one man effort. If anything, a church based organization should be establishing a church sound system performance standard and if it is not done soon there is another problem that is just around the corner. Soon the US government will be making the ADA (The Disability Act) so wide in it's scope that they may make their standard the standard used to force churches to adopt government regulated sound systems and acoustical standards. (Currently the US government claims that churches are exempt of the ADA laws under the separation of the church and state laws. However, many local and state governments enforce ADA laws in manners that it created undo financial hardship when they have no legal rights to do so.) Such regulations could be adopted in other countries too. The sooner the church community writes their own Church Sound Standards, the less the government will be imposed their regulations. And Yes, the HIS System Standard is ADA friendly.

If your church sound system performs as good or better than these standards, please let us know about it. If you have any comments or suggestions about the Standard, Send us an email his_standards@jdbsound.com

Setting a Standard

• 1. Each standard must be applicable to over 90% of the churches within the church community
• 2. To have a foundation of a sound system to build upon for future growth
• 3. The system should have all of the basic features designed into the system, ready to provide sound for all of the most common church events from worship to weddings, to funerals to concerts to drama.
• 4. It must use combinations of equipment, microphones and speakers relatively noise free when inserted into the system.
• 5. The combinations of products have to be affordable. The target cost of an entry-level sound system should be no less than $45.00 to $55.00 per seat installed from the main speaker system to the mixer and wiring to the stage.
• 6. It must satisfy people with average hearing lose and benefit those with hearing aids. It shall be understood that a hearing assist system is needed for those whom you have to raise your voice to in normal conversation.
• 7. Easy to operate with the least amount of instruction.
• 8. Have enough gain so that a person can stand in a comfortable position with a fixed microphone on a stand. This generally required a micing distance of 18 inches. (This is only for a single open mic for speaking. Adding more open mics will lower the working distance according.

• 1. The room has to be free of echo's.
• 2. The room has to be free of flutter echo's
• 3. The RT60 should not exceed - on average 2.2 seconds
• 4. The RT60 should not be less than 1.3 seconds.
• 5. There should be no standing waves from any angle. That is from side to side, front to back and floor to ceiling.
• 6. The NC of the room shall be below 35dB
• 7. The room should have an average signal to noise ratio of 25dB.

Speech requirements of a single open microphone at a pulpit, lecturn or as a hand held mic.

1. Average working distance from a single regular dynamic microphone (such as a Shure SM58 or better) before feedback -18 inches. (In a room with NC 35 or lower)
2. Maximum working distance from a regular dynamic microphone (such as a Shure SM58 or better) before feedback - 30 inches (In a room with NC 35 or lower)
3. Average sound pressure coverage within the seating area +/- 3dB
4. Intelligibility score +/- 2% of 92% in all seats with either oral speech testing, %alcons or STI or RASTI equivalent. (A Computer should be used for this or you can use the oral speech test.)
5. When eyes are closed, turn your head to the source of the amplified sound. When you open your eyes, you should be looking at the person speaking or in their direction from any location within the sanctuary.
6. At 18 inches from the mic, have enough sound pressure level (SPL) to be around 25dB above the room noise or to have an average SPL of 66dB in all of the seating. (The NC of the church has to be below 40dB flat to reach this goal)
7. To have a sound system that does not increase the reverberation time of the room.
8. To have a sound system that does not degrade the performance of the Organ or competes with congregational singing when a microphone is left on.
9. To have a sound system in which the sound operator can quickly change the controls without people in the audience noticing the changes.
10. To have a sound system that will not introduce a signal or noise when using the maximum mic gain for a single open microphone. (that means no hissssss or radio stations)

1. Have a sound system that is stable with 3 mics open and micing at 10 to 16 inches without feedback.
2. To have a sound system that will not introduce a signal or noise when using 4 mic open and micing at 10 to 16 inches without feedback. (that also means no mixer hissssss)
3. Have enough SPL in the sound system and without distortion so that a person can be heard clearly when needing to speak to the audience during congregational singing.
4. To begin the design of the speaker system as a point source system*** (speaker front and center ahead of a central pulpit) and modified accordingly as the Architecture permits of a sanctuary for the highest level of speech intelligibility and best coverage. (Music playback systems that have a Left and Right point sources much like Home HIFI and Recording Studios and can be combined as LCR systems when budgets permit. Churches on limited budgets are best served with mono point source designs when the roof heights permit it.) (*** A Speaker system should never attract attention unto itself. The speaker system should always attract you to the main position a minister normally speaks from. It is important for the sound system to mimic natural communication in which we look at what we here during the sermon portion of any worship service. When this is not possible, you should get help.)
5. All microphone lines shall be balanced type II (Two conductors, a ground wire and tin foil shield) using a 3 pin connector.
6. All lines shall be wired - Pin 1 ground, Pin 2 Hot signal or positive signal (Red or White wire), Pin 3 cold or negative signal (Black).
7. All microphone lines shall be continuous from the platform to the mixer position without any breaks. (Multi pair cables have a high failure rate. If you have to use a multi pair cable or snakes make sure the mic pairs that are individually jacketed)

To do old school tests of most of these standards without test equipment, please refer to the following web pages.
http://www.jdbsound.com/art/eval1.htm
http://www.jdbsound.com/art/eval2.htm
http://www.jdbsound.com/art/eval3.htm

Recommended Needs and Wants

These are basic guidelines only. A well designed sound system will fall within most or all of these suggestions.

1. Provide a minimum of 1 mic input for every 60 square feet of the pulpit/ platform/ altar area. This will ensure enough mic locations for the choir and all special events. (Churches with more ambition music programs should use 1 input for 45 square ft as a minimum.)

2. Provide an amplifier that has a minimum of 1/2 watt* per person** for speech only system. (Churches with music programs should have a minimum of 2 to 10 watts per person)
   (* Watts per person are just guidelines to ensure that the speaker systems are not being under powered. Under powered systems tend to have higher failure rates and have higher levels of distortion. Distortion degrades speech intelligibility. Speakers with higher efficiencies should allow you to use less power per person. Adjust your system power requirements accordingly. While a sound system should not be designed based on watts per person, when looking a proposal for system evaluations, it is a quick indicator whether to red flag the project or not.
   ** Power standards are based on a loudspeaker 99dB 1 watt 1 meter with a coverage pattern of 40 x 90. up to approximatly 90ft when acoustical conditions allow it.)
3. Provide a tape player and / or CD/MP3/Digital/computer player for playback of singing events.
4. Provide a separate tape recorder/computer/MP3 unit for recording of services. (This prevents feedback loop which often destroy sound systems.) (Many churches use tape sales to funding other sound system expenses) (Update - this is also true for computers. Never have the input and output of a computer connected at the same time to a mixer if your using a computer to record with)
5. Provide a Constant "Q" 1/3rd octave analog or digital equalizer for every live mix. Mains, floor monitor, choir monitor....
6. Provide the option for floor monitors without replacing the mixer.
7. Provide the option for choir monitors without replacing the mixer.
8. Provide the option for separate signals from the mixer for Tape Recording, Distributed System (Nursery, offices, washrooms...) Broadcast output for TV, cable or video, and Hearing Impaired Systems.
9. Pre Fade Listening PFL is a must on all church sound system mixers.
10. Mixer must provide 48 volt phantom power for condenser microphones which use an electric current to increase the performance of the microphone.
11. Mixer, Amplifier and Equalizer/Processors/Speaker managers should always be separate units. (Amplifers with built in DSP's could be used.) (There are some digital mixer than have enough output processing that you can go from the mixer to the amps direct.)
12. All Unbalanced Consumer products with -10dB inputs and outputs such as CD players, Computers, tape players and recorders should be within 25ft of the mixer.
13. Unbalanced line level signal lines should use passive or active direct boxes to convert to mic level signals when sending a signal from the altar/stage area to a mixer when the signal is bundled in a snake or bundle of shielded mic lines.
14. All live sound professional component shall have electronically balanced or transformered balanced inputs and output - ie mixers, digital processors, equalizers, amplifiers, digital delays, and other professional live sound gear.
15. All Mixers for a mono church system should have separate Left and Right (Live and Record) master output faders when only a single mixer is used to manage FOH and Recording of worship programming.
    
    

    Amendment 2001
    
    One of the easiest ways to set up a mixer for live and recording mix in small and medium sized churches is to set up the mixer as "L" for Live and "R" for Record. This is a technique churches have been using from the early 60's to this day. It is like having two separate mixers in one. One could say that mixers with single master fader control outputs are only half a mixer when compared to mixers with separate L/R contorls.
    
    There are several reasons why these types of mixers are recommended in the HIS System Standard.

    1. On the majority of mixers, the aux outs are only from +10 to +18 out. Mixers that come with tape outs for recording are usually set for -10 or +4 output. The main L/R output usually are from +24 to +30dB out. In generally, on most live sound mixers, the main L/R output is generally 10dB higher in output than any other output on the mixer. It is the easiest method to see how your record mix and live mix is behaving. Since the record mix is coming off the main mix, your using the faders rather that knobs for visual queues. This is most helpful for casual sound operators or the custodian or usher who is suddenly thrown into mixing.

    2. It is the fastest way to teach someone how to record and mix the record mix using the faders, rather than the knobs of an auxiliary output.

    3. Instant 10dB boost to the tape mix when someone is not speaking loud enough. Generally, the mixer is set up so that you set the master output to -10 or 0dB - depending how the mixer is marked. If you need extra level to the tape when there is no more to give to the house mix for fear of feedback, then you just push the "R" control up and you have an extra 10 dB of signal. By using the slide fader, you have an instant visual queues as to where you are in the mix without looking at you tape level every 10 seconds.

    4. Additional 10dB boost with the channel control. Generally, the channel faders should be operating around -10dB or 0dB, depending on the markings. If after pushing the master "R" control is not enough, you can then push the channel control - as in the pulpit mic up 10dB. At the same time you also drop the house level 10dB to prevent feedback. That is a instant 20dB level boost to the tape mix when you need it. This singal is now 30dB greater than getting a mix from the aux. Because you are using the faders, you have an easy visual queue of where your mix is. When the next person with a strong voice comes back, you can then reset your channel to 0dB quickly. This is much easier than mixing the record mix from an Aux.

    5. Pan controls. The pan controls give you another easy way to control you tape mix. Say for example, you don't what the pastor voice on the tape mix during congregational singing. Let us also say he is singing off, but he is leading the congregational singing. By panning the pulpit mic and by passing the sub groups, you can cut or reduce the pastors voice from the tape mix by panning "L". Don't worry, you can do this while the pastor is singing. Just before he finished, you pan him back center.

    6. Likewise, say you forgot to setup an audience mic or you don't have extra mics, but some are not being using during congregational singing. You can then pan those mics hard "R" and boost the levels 20 dB with the channel and main "R" out. This way you can get good record levels for congregational singing.

    7. When I teach this method, it seems to be the best setup for most churches up to 32 channel mixers that have no TV or Radio programs and churches that are making less that 20 tapes a week. It is easy, simple to teach and the results speak for themselves.