Don't Waste Money on the Wrong Audio Equipment
Pick the Right Gear for Your Church, Every Time
Your Step-by-Step Guide
The biggest financial drain churches suffer is when they purchase the wrong audio equipment - and it happens too often! It breaks within a year, it sounds terrible, or it's just not the right equipment.
You can avoid this by getting the right gear that will last for years and we'll show you how.
Equipping Your Church for Audio, co-authored by myself (Chris Huff) and Brian Gowing, is the complete guide to selecting the right audio gear based on your church service style, room acoustic properties, and even the abilities of the sound techs.
You’ll learn the results-driven processes we use when helping churches get the right gear in their sanctuary – it even works with portable churches. You’ll also learn how to find out your future needs and how knowing this will enable better gear choices.
PLUS, YOU'll GET THE GUIDE TO PORTABLE CHURCH AVL!
Whether you're a portable church or just pull out a system for the occasional outside event, this is a must have for you.
What You'll Learn:
- Discover the road map to navigate through the detailed process of equipping your church with the right audio gear. This guide walks you through every step, from requirements gathering to room evaluation to gear selection and beyond.
- Learn how to pick equipment that lasts for years and meets the needs of both current and foreseeable future needs. This is easier than people realize.
- Learn the properties of the gear that’s crucial to making the right choice. This goes for speakers and mixers and audio snakes and more.
- Find out the key areas that affect gear selection – and the details behind them. Areas include the style of the service, the ability of the tech team, and the room acoustics.
- Learn the tricks to making the most of your equipment budget.
- Find out the important pieces of protection equipment that will save your equipment from damage. One piece of gear can even improve the audio quality.
The True Story
A church in central Indiana called me one day because they needed audio training.
Me: "Sure, I can do that. I tailor the training to your equipment. What type of audio console do you have?"
Them: "We just got a Midas Pro1."
Me: "That's an expensive mixer, so I take it your team already knows how to work with a digital mixer."
Them: "No, we only use it for volume control. We had an analog mixer before and no one knew how to use it, either. When we upgraded the sanctuary, a local audio company came in and said we needed that mixer, so we got it."
You might work with an integration company that DOES know how to pick the right gear. However, you might get a company that just wants to make money. This guide can also be used to validate recommendations so you're never sold "too much" equipment that you don't need. That church could have saved thousands of dollars on a mixer that better suited their needs and their talent levels.
What You'll Receive:
- Each section, in this loaded ebook, details exactly what you need to know, why you need to know it, and how you can apply it to gear selection. This means you’ll learn about everything from speaker components to mixers to rack equipment to DI boxes.
- A step-by-step guide where we walk you through the critical steps of gear selection, including the important steps that must occur before ever looking into any gear – stuff most don’t consider.
- A 7-page, 80-point, worksheet that accompanies the guide. It will become your blueprint for selecting the gear that’s right for your church (and your room).
- 3 sample stage layouts for speaker and gear placement on stage based on common scenarios – you’ll create your own but we give you these to get you started.
- A complete guide designed around the processes Brian and I use whenever we’re called to consult with a church.
You Also Get the Guide to Portable Church AVL!
Our guide on gear selection is a MUST READ for portable church techs and that's why we include the Guide to Portable Church AVL with it. Too many portable church techs (and volunteers) suffer because they don't know they could be doing things a better way!
EVEN IF YOU AREN'T AT A PORTABLE CHURCH, Brian and I agree there is still information in this guide that can help you.
You'll learn how to get the right AVL equipment, improve load-in and load-out times, and even boost morale of your volunteers.
The Guide to Portable Church AVL, co-authored by myself (Chris Huff) and Brian Gowing, is the complete guide to working in the portable church arena. Or as we like to call it, the touring church.
You'll learn how to save money transporting your gear, the pros and cons of the different types of rental facilities, and how to pick everything from the best video software to getting the perfect lights for your stage.
You'll even get a detailed list of everything you need to carry in your toolkit - because we've been there and know the essential equipment to carry around.
It's got 16 sections in all, so if it's related to portable church AVL then I guarantee we've covered it.
Your Bonus ($15 Value):
Guide to Acoustic Treatment on the Cheap
Are you tired of fighting against sounds bouncing around the room and destroying your mix? Church services are being held in some of the worst acoustic spaces, including gymnasiums. This guide explains the cheap but effective methods for tackling this problem, including ways to build your own acoustic treatment. It even has effective methods for portable churches!
Only $29.97
What Others are Saying:
Richard Agee Church Audio Tech in San Antonio, TexasThe information in your guide has been tremendously helpful.
What I like most is the order in which it is presented. It makes sense to us that following the priorities laid out by the worksheet gives us a pretty good look at when and how we can best approach the different parts of our system that needs upgrading or replaced.
Adam Hougham Church Audio Tech at Life Church, Hertfordshire, UKOur church has moved out of its own (small) building to better facilitate Sunday ministries in a school hall. Taking the advice from Chris on equipment purchases, I've been able to make that move as painless as possible - making the transition to digital mixing without a mental break down!
Daniel Smith Church Audio Tech, Lichtenburg, South Africa"Thank you for another great aid. I have read through the book and will keep on referencing it as I go along. My work sheet is basically completed, in time for planning purchases for our new financial year."
Garrett Jackson Church Audio Tech, Perry, Florida"I wish I had [this] 4 years ago when our church was in the process of changing our board out. We had a great AVL contractor that was helping us along the way but the things that I have been reading in this book could have helped out with saving a lot of money."
Ron Gasbarini Church Audio Tech, Ontario, CanadaI've finished reading the ebook, which I thoroughly enjoyed and I can't think of anything else I'd like to find in it, as both you and Brian covered everything one needs to know to plan out sound system equipment. This ebook covered everything I needed to find out about, and more.
The best part of the guide was the recommended brands lists - that's very valuable for purchasing decisions. (Good to know about first-hand experience with the various brands so as to avoid gear that may be troublesome.) As well, the worksheet makes it easier to discuss requirements with the church leadership.
Thank you to both you and Brian for producing this ebook - it's a great help and a blessing. God bless.
What You’ll Learn in Equipping Your Church for Audio:
Listen to any pro audio manufacturer and you’d think their gear was the perfect solution. Talk with most any sales person at your local guitar shop and you’ll think picking gear is easy. Neither is the case, not even close.
Brian and I have been working in pro audio for decades and we know the truth is that most good quality gear is good in itself but it isn’t perfect for every scenario – and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all method to gear selection. In this ebook, you’ll learn to analyze your church’s needs, among many other things, and then pick the gear that’s perfect for your situation. You’ll learn the methods we use.
Not only will you learn about the big stuff like how to select the right house speakers, but we also tackle monitoring solutions and go through all of the available options and you'll learn how to pick what is right for your musicians. Plus, you'll learn all about microphone selection, from vocal microphones to drum mics and even how to tame loud drums.
We’ve also created an amazingly detailed 7-page worksheet for use alongside the guide. You’ll use it to capture all the important information required for proper gear selection. You’ll even use it to record your gear selections.
If your church membership runs below 400 people or less, this is perfect for you because we know how much size affects budget and wrote this guide with you in mind. If your church is bigger, the guide will still help - the core difference is in the equipment you can afford.
Below is the table of contents so you can see how in-depth we go and how much you’ll learn. Just to give you an idea, you’ll learn all about the various speaker properties, how they contribute to the sound quality, and how we recommend speakers with certain properties for various room layouts.
Sections
- Ease the Frustration
- Using the Worksheet
- Step 1: Define the Church’s Needs
- Step 2: Crew and Ministry Evaluation
- Step 3: Room Evaluation
- Audio Systems – An Overview
- Step 4: Select a Mixer
- Step 5: Get a Snake
- Step 6: Protect Equipment
- Step 7: Grab Some Headphones
- Step 8: Pick the Right Speakers
- Step 9: The Right Stage Monitors
- Step 10: Crossovers, Equalizers, Effects
- Step 11: Pick Vocal Microphones
- Step 12: Pick Specialty Microphones
- Step 13: Cables and Stands (and Other Small Stuff)
- Step 14: Pick the Right Di Boxes
- Step 15: Consider Assisted Listening Devices
- Step 16: When There's No Budget
- Step 17: Present the Plan
- Step 18: Purchase and Installation
- Final Steps
In less than 1 minute, have INSTANT access to:
- The complete guide to proper audio gear selection - everything we do when working with churches.
- The massive multi-page worksheet that will become your greatest resource.
- The bonus document ($15 Value) that will help you tame any overly reverberant room.
- The knowledge you need to make the right gear choices based on your room, your budget, and your production needs – and it’s instantly available.
- PLUS, the AVL guide to working in the portable church - everything you need to know
- AND, you can contact us if you have questions!
Only $29.97
30-Day ‘No Surprises’ Money Back Guarantee
If you’re not 100% satisfied with Equipping Your Church for Audio then I’ll refund your money. No surprises in fine print. Brian and I are that confident this guide will help you equip your church with the right gear.
P.S.
Equipping Your Church for Audio has everything you need to pick the right gear for your church for a good sound. Along with the guide is the massive 7-page worksheet that transforms the needs of your church into a list of the right gear for the church. You’ll even get the bonus; Guide to Reduce Room Reflections on the Cheap – it’s a guide people have been asking us about for years. Get the guide today and we guarantee you’ll be able to equip your church or portable church with the right equipment for successful audio production.
About the Authors
Brian Gowing
Brian's helped over 100 churches with worship issues, including audio gear selection and installation. He's the production director at a large Ohio church and the Business & Technology Manager for the Great Lakes District Office of the Christian & Missionary Alliance. He also writes for BehindTheMixer.com.
Chris Huff
For over 20 years, Chris Huff has been working in live sound in roles varying from sound tech to church technical director. He writes for pro audio trade publications including Church Production Magazine and Live Sound International. His church audio site, behindthemixer.com, has an international following and is used for teaching live audio production while navigating the unique church environment.