Installing a Church Audio System

Over the past year, I have been able to work with some talented audio contractors and consultants.   If you are local to southwest Virginia, let me introduce you to some of the companies that helped Cornerstone design and implement the sound system we are currently using.

Jim Sharp at TechGnome Productions in North Carolina provided some great help in the early stages of our building renovation.  He gave us some great ideas and even provided some training for our sound techs.   Jim knows his stuff and does quality work.  His company is used to handling projects start to finish, including all design and installation.  Because of budget constraints, we wanted to have more involvement in purchasing and installing equipment.  We ended up using some of his ideas, and I appreciate his willingness to help us out.

We ended up purchasing our equipment from several companies.  Northern Sound and Light gave us some great deals on most of the equipment, and Scott Oliver from Pro Audio Solutions helped us with the rest.  Several of the guys in the church handled the installation of all the audio and video equipment and wiring.  It wasn’t much fun crawling around the attic, but we ended up saving about half of the quoted cost by doing the work ourselves.  Once we got everything installed, we met Chris Gennette from iJamUSA. He was able to build a great sound desk and then he helped us tune and setup the system.  Chris is a great guy located in Hillsville, Virginia.  He was super easy to work with and I look forward to working with him in the future.

I also have to give a shout out to my friends over at Gravel Road Entertainment.  I’ve talked with them in the past and look forward to getting their input on some future projects.

Whenever dealing with consultants and contractors, make sure you know up front how much input you can have in the project.  Some companies welcome the involvement and some companies would rather handle the job from start to finish.  You will need to find the right match for your church depending on the level of expertise in your church.  By doing most of the work ourselves, we saved half of the quoted price and we ended up with better equipment.   I would recommend any of these companies if you are considering upgrading your sound system.

Here are a few pics of our how our system turned out.  Remember we are in a small intimate worship environment.  We have seating for around 200 people.   It sounds great and we finally can control the sound in the room.  Notice the curtains behind the stage which helped.  Our mains and monitors are from QSC, and the sub is from Danley Labs.   This setup works great in this room and can easily provide enough sound for 400+ people.