Audio Engineering Society Singapore Section

On Friday, 30 April 1999 at 7.00pm, 10 members and 54 guests of the AES Singapore Section gathered at Touch Community Theatre to listen to a talk on "Challenges in Church Sound Design" by Mr Robert Soo. Mr Soo is the Technical Director of Touch Technical Services(TTS), who is behind many of today's large Christian events in Singapore. TTS, who regularly services the technical needs for the Faith Community Baptist Church in Singapore, supports two large modern Church facilities located in the east and west of Singapore that are linked by fibre-optics to enable high quality audio/video transmission. TTS has also recently produced a live worship album. 

At 7.30pm, Mr Soo began his talk by introducing the overall design approach for a Church sound system. He made some acute observations that a trend is forming among Singapore Churches, albeit slowly, to place more emphasis and budget to technical issues such as sound reinforcement systems. Church buildings are also now being used for events other than the normal weekend services, and as such, some venues are being equipped with full multi-media presentation and video conferencing capabilities. However, noting that a Church is different from a theatre in that it requires a unique form of multi-way interaction, special considerations need to be taken to cater to the specific needs of a Church.

Before diving into the technical issues, Mr Soo presented a suggested list of people the Church sound system designer should work with in the design process, accompanied with the purposes of the list. First on the list is the senior pastor, who can address important issues such as Sunday service needs, future plans for the sanctuary and worship services, and perhaps also the preferred look or style of the sanctuary. Others on the list include the worship/music director, video/computer/lighting department directors, audio/acoustic/M&E consultants, the suppliers/contractors and the architect. Issues to be discussed with these people range from requirement specifications to noise/vibration control to audio equipment and electrical specifications to the whole installation process itself! Mr Soo, clearly from experience, gave many practical points to note when working with the entire range of people involved. 

Moving on to the technical issues, Mr Soo dealt with essentially the entire audio chain, spewing advice on microphones, mixing consoles, monitoring systems, wireless equipment, musical instruments, acoustics, as well as the audio distribution infrastructure. He emphasised the importance on the proper selection and the use of the right equipment for the right purpose. Mr Soo also touched on the various speaker configuration options available, such as the stereo left-right, the mono centre, the left-centre-right, and also the distributed system with delays. Wrapping up the technical issues, he stressed that proper education and training of personnel like the sound crew, the pastors, the singers, the musicians on the proper use of the sound equipment is essential to the optimal operation and delivery of sound in the Church. 

Finally, covering budgeting issues, Mr Soo suggested that budget plans be of longer term, and to design the system in a modular manner as to allow for future expansion. He advised detailed and responsible budgeting, cutting out the nice-to-have but unnecessary items. Said Mr Soo: "Ultimately, we need to be competent to the point that given a certain situation with limited resources, we are able to get the best performance out of it." 
 

The meeting ended with a question and answer session where there was clearly a great interest in the design of the talk venue, the Touch Community Theatre itself, of which Mr Soo was involved in a huge part in its sound system design. The AES Singapore Section would like to thank Mr Robert Soo and his colleagues for the use of the community theatre and for their kind assistance during the meeting. 
 

Copyright 1999 AES Singapore Section