josep wrote:so far we're not planning on doing any sound-proofing consultant work.....unless is recommended by our architect.
Most church building architects know NOTHING about acoustics or sound proofing these days. When you suggest to them some of your requirements for AV they glaze over and look at you as though you're crazy. For most churches they cut acoustic design first thing - or never consider it - and it's a big mistake.
Our old church was building a new building and I told them to get an acoustician and AV design team in there from the beginning. They didn't. Architect drew up the plans, they broke ground, poured the concrete, framed the building, then decided, hmmm... maybe we should get some plans for AV... forget acoustics. Needless to say, it was a mess. The architect had not given enough conduit for AV, so they had to jack hammer out the new foundation to lay more conduit. The flat walled room has about a 5 second flutter echo across it and really limits intelligibilty.
Our current church building has a 2500 person auditorium, has hundreds of thousands in needless gear, 25 foot high gypsum board walls and NO acoustic treatment. There's about a 7 second flutter echo that bounces from side to side! What displaced resources.
