The Church Balcony and the FOH Engineer

Over the past few years, I have been privileged to visit quite a few churches on the east coast and run sound for worship services.  During that time, one problem that I have seen in some churches lies in locating the production booth to the balcony of a church auditorium.  While this may be aesthetically pleasing and creates more room on the main auditorium floor, the trade off is not usually beneficial in the long run

.

There are a few major things that need to be taken into account when determining whether a position for a production booth is good or not.

Line of sight is by far the most important.  The sound tech needs to be able to SEE everything all parts of the stage and main floor.

Many times because of the “line of sight rule” people think that a balcony would be a good place to put a production booth when in reality the opposite is true.  I have seen and mixed at churches that have a balcony that is adjacent to the main auditorium and they have knocked a hole in the wall providing them a window for line of sight but unfortunately, while the FOH tech may have a great view, it is not a good location for a number of reasons.

First, when you run sound in any environment, your goal is to create a good mix for the audience and in order to do that, you need to be in that same environment.  The goal is to hear the same thing that the audience hears so that you can create a proper balance and make adjustments based on that.  Also, you cannot take into account the room acoustics, sound dynamics, and the overall perception of the audience if you are not on the same level as they are.

Also, if you put the audio booth on the balcony, the audio tech will never hear direct waves.  We would never position speakers directly towards a back wall and that is exactly what you would need to do in order to for the audio tech to hear what is necessary to get a good mix.

Also, consider the practicality of access from the production booth to the stage.  The worship team and the production team need to function together as one team and one body in order for a service to go more smoothly.  The access from the balcony to the stage will most likely be difficult at best especially when there are people in the room.  One thing I have been trying to cultivate is a trust between the worship band and the production team.  I am trying to accomplish this by encouraging the production staff to take a more pro-active role in working with the worship team and helping them to make sure the production needs are met.  Placing a production team on a balcony means that any time assistance is needed on stage, they will have to exit the balcony, walk down the steps, through the foyer, into the auditorium, up onto the stage.  Sometimes, troubleshooting requires multiple trips back and forth from the sound booth to the stage.  This can prove to be both exhausting and frustrating.

The bottom line is that in order to get a good mix and the continue to improve the quality of production at any church, the production crew, especially the audio tech, needs to hear exactly what the congregation is hearing in order to blend an accurate and quality mix.  Trust between the worship band and production team is also key in creating an atmosphere of worship in those who are serving in ministry.

I would love to hear feedback and opinions on this blog.  Feel free to email me at jason@jasoncastellente.com or comment below.

If you feel that my blogs are helpful to you or your ministries, feel free to link people to my blog, tweet links, or repost links on Facebook

Page 1 of 2 | Next page