Our old analog sound system was just that. Old; with a limited capacity for expansion or improvement. To be honest, our sound (both in-house and for our online streaming audience) was mediocre, at best. I never liked doing things in a mediocre fashion, if excellence was possible. The financial realities we had faced in prior years had forced us to shrug our shoulders and move on until something changed.
At the end of 2020, my church was faced with an unusual situation. Due to the pandemic, our expenses had been curtailed during the year. However, the income from the congregation had not been decreased. Which meant that we had a surplus of funds on hand. Something had changed!
We were blessed with some free advice. Transition from our old, limited, analog sound system to a modern, digital sound system. I put in a LOT of hours, researching the advantages and disadvantages of various digital sound systems. My search list on YouTube would have been far more extensive concerning digital sound systems than reason would have dictated. I was trying to learn, in a few weeks, enough to allow me to direct the changeover without asking for help. We had the finances to buy the equipment, but not to hire someone to help us.
After all my homework, I built a list of components we would need, along with where we could order them from. After final approval, I pulled the trigger and spent a good portion of our financial windfall purchasing every component I thought we would need. As the days passed, boxes began to arrive at my home. I was stacking them in my garage and making plans for how to make the switch happen without impacting our ability to have a service. After triple-checking my list, I began the deconstruction process on a Sunday afternoon following our morning worship service. I finished on Monday morning, all of the old equipment was gone, and the sound booth had been cleaned and prepared for the new components. Monday and Tuesday involved placing all of the new components, making some initial connections, and hoping I wasn’t making a mess of things. Wednesday was spent installing some new cabling to support the digital system. I spent all day Thursday slowly powering on components, doing ongoing testing as I made adjustments to my plan. By the end, we were able to have our first rehearsal with the new system on Friday evening.
I have no clue how many hours I spent watching YouTube videos, or how many hours I wasted during the installation process correcting my mistakes I made. In the end, it all worked out. However, had I had access to someone who had the knowledge I lacked and was available at a reasonable cost, I could have put those lost hours to better use.
That is what I offer, knowledge. Updating an older analog system to a modern digital system can be daunting. The challenges go beyond just disconnecting old cables and hooking them up to a new board. That probably will end up being disappointing, and quite possibly just won’t work! My experience and knowledge can help YOU avoid those pitfalls.