Churches, Auditoriums and Theaters Share Some Common Challenges
Live spoken voice performance in a large room of people, is one of the most challenging audio problems. Filled with technical challenges like open microphone feedback and sound reflections, poor sound support in these buildings give the listener an experience somewhere between uncomfortable to incomprehensible.
In all of these cases, the performance is the product that the customers have paid for. Failing to deliver a quality sound experience is a failure to deliver the product to the customer. It's critical that the sound system provide a full rich sound that the listeners can comfortably hear and understand.
Room Filling Sound
Without a doubt, the first reason to consider DML speakers as a solution to filling a large space with sound is that the distributed nature of these large flat panels spread the sound over a wide area. By design, arrays of flat panel DML speakers fill large spaces with sound, while limiting sidewall reflections that can interfere with audio clarity.
In spaces prone to echo, DML speaker panels distributed around a room can act both as sound generators and sound absorbers, adding to the minimization of negatively interacting sound waves. By using an array of DML panels, we can bring the sound closer to the listener, reducing the need for high power to drive audio into the room. DML panels fill the room evenly and require less power than pistonic speaker systems.
Feedback Resistant
Another curious property of DML speakers is their ability to resist feeding back into open microphones. By producing the sound across a large area, sound waves hit the microphone at many different phases, causing less audio from the speaker to be picked up on an open microphone.
In many cases, its even possible to put the speakers behind a performing band or stage performers. It's also possible to take an open microphone into the audience surrounded by DML speakers and interact live while greatly limiting system feedback. This can create intimate interactions with the audience, without concerns that your audio system is going to start squealing if person holding the open microphone walks past a speaker.
Bringing the Performance to the Crowd
Theaters in the round would be another example of a space that could benefit from DML speakers. Anywhere that you have a large space full of people that you want to communicate with in real time. If you're concerned about avoiding microphone feedback while ensuring the audience can clearly hear what is being said, then you should consider DML speakers in your church, auditorium or performance space.