Installations

The only constant behind optimizing the sound for a house of worship project is change. Along with the shift from traditional church music to something more akin to a rock concert, church congregations are moving into unorthodox locations, and traditional churches are reaching out with mobile satellite services in gyms and other non-traditional locations. With sound designers and audio integrators scrambling over an obstacle course of potential compromises to the goal of an ideal listening experience for every seat in the house of worship, those manufacturers who can provide gear to meet their “mission impossible” challenges for any space have a decisive advantage.

Portland, Oregon’s Crystal Ballroom has enjoyed a storied existence since opening on the eve of World War I as Ringler’s Cotillion Hall. A live music venue since the 1960’s, when artists such as the Grateful Dead, Ike & Tina Turner and Buffalo Springfield performed, the historic building is starting a new chapter with a major audio equipment refresh, courtesy of design, sales and integration company Tone Proper AV, located in nearby Gresham, OR.

Austin Performance Space Uses Music Therapy for Detox

The Recovery Unplugged Treatment Center uses the power of music to help its patients heal from drug and alcohol addiction. Offering medically supervised detox, residential inpatient treatment, outpatient treatment, and sober living, Recovery Unplugged offers a music-based treatment approach that provides patients with access to a well-rounded recovery experience.

This month, FRONT of HOUSE takes a look at some recent installations nightclub sector — in particular, the new sound systems deployed for Hudson Ultra Bar in Hoboken NJ, Hard Rock Live in Las Vegas, the Oxford Social Club in San Diego, the Blue Whale in Los Angeles, Switch in Southampton, U.K. and LOFT in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (pictured here).

If Toronto was the capital of the U.K., then Massey Hall might reasonably be named the Royal Albert Hall. This is no fanciful comparison. Both are, in the absolute sense of the word, iconic venues for their respective cities and share a common era, being built within just a few years of each other in the late 19th century.

An (Audio) Transformational Experience

Great Hills Baptist Church has long been a cornerstone of Austin’s faith community. Located in a town long known for its deep involvement in music, this vibrant and growing congregation definitely needed a high-fidelity sound system to suit the needs of parishioners in the church, which seats approximately 2,700.

The pride of Lynchburg, VA, Liberty University’s School of Music, set a new benchmark for acoustical flexibility as it debuts one of the world’s first performance venues to offer adjustable architectural acoustics working hand-in-hand with Meyer Sound’s Constellation active acoustic system. Students, faculty, guest ensembles and the surrounding community can now experience musical performances of any genre in acoustical surroundings precisely tailored for optimum benefit.

In the evolving world of the praise and worship market, venues are not only upgrading to meet new digital standards but also raising the bar in terms of production value.

Audio installations and upgrades within sports facilities typically present severe challenges to integrators and system designers. Perhaps the most formidable of these is the sheer scale of multiple coverage areas. The latter often entails working with enormous, cavernous open-air spaces while also delivering an acceptable listening experience to everyone occupying the seats, whether fans are courtside or in the upper “nosebleed” seats of an arena or — in a stadium project — on the grandstand, bleachers, end-zones or beneath a second or third deck.