Here’s the second part in our latest Riddle Me This!
If you recall (here’s part one), Colton Depuy is a newly hired AV Coordinator at his church in Boise ID. The second part of his question relates to church worship volume complaints – in the case of being too loud.
In Colton’s words…
“Second question, I have 1 gentleman in the congregation who always complains about the volume, especially if there is bass. I have explained to him that we try our best to help the congregation worship, but we cannot please everyone. We do not (in my opinion) run loud. We typically run 82dB slow A-weight. Our worship pastor and I would prefer to run about 90dB, so I am trying to level up. At the same time I do not want to force this man to leave because he does not like it. Is it a bad idea to offer earplugs for our services? Some people say it is trying to exclude members, but to me, it seems no different than the assisted listening sets we offer. What do you guys think?
Thanks in advance!”
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This episode is sponsored by Rebuilding: A Nineteen Week Devotional for Those Serving in Church Technology
Greg says
I was the “sound guy” at a smaller church where we ran into similar complaints. We were not loud by an objective measure. However, we were “loud” to those with certain hearing issues. As people age, they may become sensitive to certain frequencies – generally lower in my experience. My wife has that issue. The way I addressed it with several individuals was by identifying certain locations in the room that had a lower volume (due to speaker direction, reflection, and other barriers like seats between the position and the subs). While it wasn’t a comfortable conversation to have, I suggested to these people that there were certain areas where you could sit that would be better for them. In most cases it worked and we worked through it. In some cases, the people were locked to their seat so we just had to agree to disagree on changing the volume.
Jeremy Smith says
Love it and the intentionality behind it!
Eric Dye says
You handled that VERY well. Great job, Greg!
Phil Schneider says
I’ll third that!