Church acoustics and AV design

Almost no sound problem in a church is solved by buying another loudspeaker. It is solved earlier, when the room shape, the ceiling height and the rear wall material are decided.

We design room acoustics and AV infrastructure as one discipline alongside the architecture, and we coordinate integrators so the system is installed in a room that already sounds right.

We work both on new projects and on diagnosing and correcting existing rooms that have become unintelligible.

What we measure in an existing room

Reverberation time

Octave-band measurement to know whether the room favours music, speech or neither.

Intelligibility

Speech intelligibility indices at several seating positions, especially under balconies and in the back rows.

Echoes and modes

Detection of flutter echo between parallel walls and bass build-up in corners, the usual causes of muddy sound.

Background noise

Contribution from HVAC, projectors and street noise, which determines how loud you must go to be understood.

How we intervene

Geometry before material

Correcting shape — ceiling slope, wall orientation, platform position — is more effective and cheaper than covering the room in panels.

Selective absorption

We place absorption where it is genuinely needed and integrate it into the design: slatted timber, technical textiles, ceiling clouds and diffusive surfaces.

Isolation

When the problem is the neighbour, the answer is not interior acoustics but mass, decoupling and airtightness.

Sound reinforcement

We define the strategy (line array, distributed or hybrid), zone coverage, stage monitoring and feedback control.

Video, lighting and streaming

Screens and projection

Sizing and position based on real viewing distances, with attention to glare and ambient light.

Three lighting layers

House light for reading and safety, stage light for band and preacher, and camera light so the stream does not look flat.

Streaming and recording

Camera positions planned on the floor plan, cabling, control room and a broadcast audio mix treated separately from the room mix.

Simple operation

Volunteers run the system: we design scenes and presets so Sunday never depends on one specialist technician.

Indicative investment

Typical ranges for rooms of 150 to 600 seats.

ItemIndicative range
Acoustic diagnosis with measurements and report€1,500 – €4,500
Acoustic and AV design project€6,000 – €25,000
Interior acoustic treatment€60 – €180 / m²
Professional sound system€20,000 – €120,000
Stage and camera lighting€12,000 – €80,000
Video, streaming and control€10,000 – €70,000

Frequently asked questions

Our room echoes and preaching is hard to follow. Can it be fixed without building work?

Often yes: well-placed absorption and diffusion plus a properly tuned sound system can restore intelligibility without touching the structure.

Will you work with our current AV integrator?

Yes. We define requirements and design criteria and coordinate your supplier. We do not sell equipment, so the specification stays independent.

Can one room be good for both music and speech?

Yes, with controlled reverberation and well-planned reinforcement. The usual mistake is leaving the room very live and trying to fix it with volume.

Do you carry out certified measurements for licensing?

Yes, including isolation and noise-limit testing required by the applicable municipal ordinance.

Every word reaching the back row.

If your room sounds wrong, or you are about to build it, we start by listening to it and measuring it. With data, decisions stop being a matter of opinion.