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An Evening of Sanctuary Acoustics and Sound Reinforcement for Houses of Worship
And PNW Section Annual Business Meeting


June 2, 1998
Eleven small JPEGs available
Report by David Scheirman

38 persons gathered June 2 in the sanctuary of the First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue. The meeting attendees included a sizeable contingent of volunteer sound system operators from this active house of worship, under the direction of Mr. Wayne Hammen. Attendees learned about the church's sound system requirements and the design and installation process for the sanctuary sound system.

Scott Dean, Director of Music, began the program with an explanation of the sanctuary's design elements and the part they played in development of the building acoustics. He pointed out considerations that affect the congregation's worship experience, including placement of the organ chamber, the positioning of the choir and liturgical accessories, and noise sources such as air-handling equipment and pipe organ blower.

Ron Hyder, technical liaison for the church during the construction phase, pointed out some of the audio system needs for the facility. He noted that some compromises are required when juggling the needs of budget, acoustics, architectural design and audio system performance.

The sound system was installed by CCI (Capital Communications, Inc., Olympia, WA). CCI's Ron Simonson was on hand to explain his firm's central-cluster design approach, which included White Instruments' DSP signal processing and large-format midrange horns for improved pattern control (fitted with JBL 2490H mid-range 4" diaphragm compression drivers). CCI's experience with sound systems for sports venues, churches and theatres that stress vocal intelligibility resulted in an installation that met the church's requirements and budget.

A playback demonstration was made of digital audio tape (DAT) recordings of the church's pipe organ made in the sanctuary. These were compared to the "real thing", as demonstrated by the Director of Music. The organ used is a 64-rank unit from Casavant Freres in Quebec, featuring 4 voice groups, 46 stops and 3,556 pipes. To enable meeting attendees to fully experience the sanctuary acoustics and the sound system's place in supporting music for worship services in the building, attendees were also treated to a live performance by the 12-piece vocal praise group "Martuero," accompanied by piano and drums. Drummer for the evening was the AES PNW Section's own Rick Smargiassi.

A tour of the pipe organ chambers, mixing console location, and equipment rack room completed the program. The church's volunteer sound system crew made connections with several AES members willing to offer advice regarding operations techniques. The evening's door prize was a VHS-format copy of the instructional videotape, "Live Sound for Houses of Worship", donated by Sound Concept.
Business Meeting & Election

The PNW section's annual business meeting included Chairman's, Secretary's, and Treasurer's reports and the election of new Committee Officers.

17 voting members, combined with mailed ballots, were involved in the election process. Votes were tabulated by Dan Mortensen and Raul Gonzalez, current Committee Members who were not involved in the current election process.
The results are as follows:

Chair - Mr. Rick Chinn
Vice Chair - Ms. Aurika Hays
Secretary - Mr. Gary Louie
Treasurer - Mr. Allen Goldstein

New members,
Committee -
Mr. Vince Dayton
Ms. Sam Fontaine
Mr. Bob Moses
Mr. David Scheirman

Continuing members,
Committee -
Mr. Terry Denbrook
Mr. Raul Gonzalez
Mr. Dan Mortensen
Mr. Rick Smargiassi (will complete 2nd year of Hays' 2-year term)
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