The A/V Design Process
The design of a sound/video/lighting system for a church or other facility has many parallels to the process an Architect follows when designing a building.
The design starts with interviewing everyone at the church who has a stake in the audio/video/lighting/acoustics. This is the start of a "Phase 1 study" or "Program" which will result in a document that outlines in written form exactly what the needs and expectations of the church are for each part of their project. It will discuss the proposed solutions in terms of general concepts (the sanctuary will have a central cluster loudspeaker, and the fellowship hall will be covered with ceiling speakers, etc.) but not go into any specifics of equipment. If the church has expressed desires that are contradictory, then this will be discussed along with the possible tradeoffs and suggested solutions. The program will typically end with an estimated budget number (+/- 20% or so). The program will go back and forth between the church and the designer until everyone is agreed that it correctly defines the work to be done.
Phase 1 could be a day's work including the site visit, or could be weeks of work. The more internal work you can do as a church to define exactly what your needs and wants are, what all the uses of the space/systems will be, the easier, faster, and less expensive the program will be.
Phase 2 of a project is turning the program into a design. It will end with a set of documents that a contractor can use to give the church a bid on the project. If the church already has a good contractor they like to work with, and the designer feels comfortable with the competence of the firm, the bid documents might be able to be somewhat simplified, which could save some fees. If the project is put out to bid, the designer may pre-qualify the bidders to make sure that firms that have no business bidding the job are rejected in advance. The designer will often review the bids and guide the church in selecting the contractor to use. The low bidder is not always the best value!
Better designers will always provide the DSP programming as part of Phase 2. DSP programming is a very important part of the overall system design and for it to be done optimally the designer should do it. Some consulting firms don't do this work in order to be able to quote a lower system design fee. Some firms even require the contractor to hire the consulting firm to do the DSP programming as part of the contractor's scope of work and fees. This is dishonest as it shifts costs in an attempt to fool the customer.
Phase 3 is the installation, and is largely in the hands of the contractor selected. The designer reviews the submittals from the contractor to make sure they properly understand the project and are ordering the correct equipment. They are available to answer questions, and particularly on acoustics projects there will be one or more site visits to make sure the construction is being done correctly (it is very easy to make minor mistakes inside a wall that can only be fixed later by tearing down the wall). When the contractor has finished the designer will come in to commission the project, do EQ and other adjustments as required, review the contractor's work and produce a "punch list" of things that need to be corrected or finished before the contractor is given the final payment.
Most Consulting and Design/Build firms follow a similar 3 Phase approach to their projects.
Ray A. Rayburn
Ray@K2Audio.com
http://www.K2Audio.com
