Our Church Sound
Brad's Sound Company's Brad Perry & Albert Stanley look after the sound & technical requirements at the Philadelphia Indonesian Uniting Church in Karama.
Apart from supplying all equipment, they attend weekly Saturday rehearsals to set up & operate the sound system (depending on work commitments) & the Sunday morning services.
A 'labour of love' with so many talented church singers & guest performers. Brad or Albert also film & edit the Church services & post many of the highlights on YouTube.
Brad learned his sound engineering skills on the internet & put them into practice at the Church. He has achieved much success in raising the sound quality to the high standards enjoyed by the singers & congregation today.
Many visiting performers & clergy from Australia & Indonesia have commented on the sound clarity & mixing skills we have developed, & congratulated us for our achievments.
However, we are still learning & striving for the little improvements we can make...We both firmly believe that in any work we do in God's house....we must strive for excellence.
One of the major obstacles we had to overcome was the very poor acoustic conditions inside the Church building....A rectangular room with a low ceiling, brick & glass louvre walls & tiled floor....about as bad as you could get. The reverberation made it very difficult to get clear sound....especialy for spoken word & caused major headaches with feedback.
Brad undertook a major acoustic treatment effort around the 3 sides & ceiling area of the stage & across the rear brick wall. Much of the treatment was home made panels of carpet, blankets & acoustic foam....very effective... Then decorated with beautiful Indonesian made curtains.
Feedback is now a very rare occurrence ....even with up to 13 or more mics open at the same time...
Sound quality starts at the microphone ....the singers enjoy using the world class Shure KSM9 mics...also the AKG Elle Cs & the industry standard Shure SM58. Always excellent singing from the very talented church people...
Our minister is the Rev. Salomo Bangun who conducts Services every Sunday at 9.30am. Worship & song in English & Bahasa Indonesian...you are always welcome at 53 Koolinda Crescent in Karama...
Rev Salomo's dancers....Ibu Erna, Gita, Bendalina & Fin
Our Sunday AV team...Jerry, Albert & Ella
Above: A typical Sunday Service with song leader Ibu Susan Bangun
Below: ChaListiin and Thaty....
Andre Hehanussa sings ..... & Albert Stanley sings
Vocal group 'Anugerah'
Vocal Group 'Agape' ..below
Below: The beautiful voice of Ibu Asnat.... click on photo to watch video
One 'special' feature of our church sound is our 'Dual Stereo System' (DSS) as pictured below....
All loudspeakers are ceiling mounted and tilted downwards & inwards towards the left and right congregation seating areas.
The centre mounted Peavey SSE sanctury series speakers are primarily for the pastor's sermon or song leader. Placing the speakers central means the direction of sound reaching the congegation comes from the direction of the pulpit... from the direction of the person talking or singing...not from the sides.
The side mounted PV115 speakers (with the HF horns rotated 90deg) are primarily to play keyboard or recorded music... this is necessary as the central speakers are not designed for the lower musical frequencies. We can then move the singers voices centre or sides to give a balanced & very effective seperate stereo sound to either side of the church.
Even though the speakers are of different types ...centre or side, they never play the same voices or music material.....making the stereo image very effective but almost eliminating comb filtering/phase cancellation issues.
This is not a setup you are likely to find in too many venues or text books....but it works very well for us...