Church Acoustics Articles
How Many Could Jesus Talk to At Once?
—Arthur M. Noxon, PE.
Someone once asked Arthur Noxon, how many people can hear the voice of Jesus? Here's the answer.
Church Acoustics - Unnoticed Means a Successful Job
—Arthur M. Noxon, PE.
Originally featured in Church & Worship Technology, March, 2008.
Usually, working with churches is pretty hard. But one day I got the dream call. It went something like this: Hi. We had some vandals start a fire and our church was smoke damaged. It was covered by insurance and the entire inside of the church needs to be removed and resurfaced. We figure we can use this money to do the acoustic job we always needed, and still get the painting done. So what do we do?
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Auditorium Acoustics
—Arthur M. Noxon, PE.
A four-part article originally featured in Church & Worship Technology, 2002.
The traditional church is half auditorium and half recital hall in design. It needs to clearly present speech and yet a few minutes later in the service it needs to support engaging congregation singing. A new style of church service has evolved. The emphasis is on understanding the sermon and less on congregational singing, it is the church auditorium. Here as a study series to better understand the design strategies behind church acoustics.
Auditorium Acoustics 101: The Quieter, the Better
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Auditorium Acoustics 102: Reflections Make All the Difference
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Auditorium Acoustics 103: Speakers Make Sound, Acoustics Clean It Up
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Auditorium Acoustics 104
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The Art of Church Acoustics
—Tim Bott
Originally featured in Church & Worship Technology, March, 2004.
Faced with fire and smoke damage, the New Life Center in Springfield, Oregon approached ASC President Art Noxon and gave him a blank canvas to design an ideal acoustic space. The result is a beautiful looking - and sounding - sanctuary that provides acoustic zones for the praise band, choir, speaker cluster, mixing board, and congregation. Read about a great example of how ASC works with our clients to provide balanced acoustic solutions, custom-designed for the specific needs of the space.
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Cry Room Acoustics
—Tim Bott
Originally featured in Church & Worship Technology, April, 2004.
A traditional cry space is common in many churches, but how often are they used? Art Noxon discusses the different ways to build a cry facility for children and families that can solve all of the necessary noise issues but still allow full participation in the worship community of the church.
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BIG Church Acoustics
—Arthur M. Noxon, PE.
Originally featured in Church & Worship Technology, October, 2001.
All too often, a church is built like a civic auditorium--big space and many seats--yet in the case of a large church, the building is expected to perform like a church. An auditorium is made for "auditing", or listening. A church is made for auditing and singing, therein lies the important difference. Most acoustic design projects, and churches are no exception, start with a budget and a vision. By the time the building committee is finished with a fully functional church, it will have allocated about 10 percent of the total building budget to the acoustics, and that does not include the sound system, wiring, the audio room or the sound equipment. The hope is, after all is said and done, that the church will actually sound like a church.
Voicing The Church
—Arthur M. Noxon, PE.
There are two aspects to Church Acoustic projects. One is the acoustic material to be used and the second is the strategy for the application of this material. Our approach when voicing the church is performance oriented. The church wants to be bright yet clear sounding. This means we add as little acoustic material as possible and carefully position it so as to best control only the problem reflections.
