Hey all you tech fans out there. Worship these days, in many churches, is tending more toward a garage style band with drums, guitars, basses, etc. which is being brought about by the younger generations outcry for worship music that is meaningful and authentic to them. This is well and good; worship should change with the times and peoples who are doing it. One setback for many older churches, however, is the need for an electric sound system to incorporate the electric instruments and the new style of worship into the service. The current systems in use for some churches have speaking microphones, maybe a few microphones for picking up vocals from singers, but for the most part they lack the knowledge and equipment to set up a system that can handle the new style.
If I can offer a word of advice, before investing in a sound system, whether upgrade from an older system or installing for the first time, invest some of your resources into the people who will be running the system in your assembly. Peavey authored an excellent guide on church audio. You can pick it up from your local music store or from a Peavey dealer for about $10. This book is an excellent guide for anyone looking to learn more about how a sound system works. What makes it even better is that it is specifically engineered for the church sound or tech person with articles including the topics of the role of a church sound person and mics in the church setting including lapel and postern mics. This manual strives to educate the church lay sound volunteer on how the system they use works. It can get a bit technical at points, but for the most part it uses language that is easy to understand and offers a glossary in the back for looking up terms used.
Peavey also offers workshops periodically to train and discuss the topics in the manual. To find out if one is being held in your area, contact you local Peavey dealer. The Peavey website can help you find your local dealer:
http://www.peavey.com/support/dealerlocator/.
