Restoring Your Listening Experience in the Reformation Chapel & Lee Fellowship Hall

Thank you for making it possible to upgrade the sound systems in the Reformation Chapel and Lee Fellowship Hall! “It’s night and day in both spaces for sound quality,” says Ben Gardner, Technical Producer at First Presbyterian Church of Orlando.

After more than 20 years of use—perhaps closer to 30 years in the case of the Reformation Chapel—the sound systems in the chapel and Lee Fellowship Hall desperately needed an upgrade. Through the generosity of Covenant Partners like you, the Creative Team at First Presbyterian Church of Orlando was able to revitalize these essential spaces with new sound systems to serve our church for years to come. 

Now when you attend worship services, choir practices, funerals, weddings, and other events in these spaces, you won’t have to worry about straining to hear—the sound will be beautiful and clear. 

It was time to say goodbye to these decades of old cables—many of which were disintegrating and causing interference with the new equipment.

In the 1960s, our church was blessed to construct both the Reformation Chapel and Lee Fellowship Hall. As you can imagine, the architects and construction workers then couldn’t have fathomed the infrastructure requirements of the sound systems we now have today. Beyond that consideration, the Creative Teams of the past had skillfully layered new equipment and electrical lines on top of old ones, adding up to decades of old equipment and lines hiding within the walls.  

“Tearing everything out was the biggest part,” says Ben Gardner, Technical Producer at FPCO. “I can’t imagine how many literal miles of cable we ripped out.” It was a challenge, and it was necessary. 

In the Reformation Chapel, people were having greater difficulty trying to hear and understand because the microphones were failing. Someone would tell Ben, “I can’t hear,” so he would turn up the volume. Then they couldn’t understand what was being said because the microphones were distorting the sound into a loud muffle. 

Also problematic, the mixing interface of the chapel’s sound system—the tool that allows you to control the volume level and other audio variables—was nearly unusable because it required “an old-school version of Windows,” likely the ’98 version, to run it. Who still uses Windows ’98? 

In fact, this system was so old that simply trying to turn it on often resulted in lots of loud, fuzzy, staticky noises mixed with some beeping. Ben laughs, “It sounded like an Atari system.” 

In both the chapel and Lee Fellowship Hall, ease of use was also an issue with the sound systems. If anyone needed to use the sound systems, even just to turn on a mic or some music, a member of the Creative Team had to do it for them. The goal was for anyone to be able to operate these systems, whether a campus coordinator, a student ministry leader, or anyone else.

For two years, the Creative Team researched new sound systems and developed a plan for installation, keeping in mind the installation of new flooring in Lee Fellowship Hall and The Christ School’s schedule, since the students use the hall throughout the school year. Ultimately, they chose a robust, user-friendly sound system for the chapel and an incredibly high-quality one for the hall to support events like Genesis services, Parents Class, and occasional arts performances.

Ben says, “The sound system in Lee Fellowship Hall, that sound system is killer. I wish I had that sound system in my house.”

This new sound system in the Reformation Chapel will enrich weddings, funerals, choir practices, and other events in this space for years to come.

Come summer, the Creative Team started hauling the decades-old equipment out of the buildings and the cables out of the walls. They hired some incredible contractors to handle the electrical work and to create custom infrastructure for the new sound systems, like input panels and speaker grill panels. In July, the sound systems had officially been installed!

Now not only is the sound quality crystal clear, the sound systems are extremely easy to use. In the Reformation Chapel, the system has “a digital console that can be run from a tablet or from a phone.” Ben shares, “It’s super easy. It sounds really good.” In Lee Fellowship Hall, the system has digital and analog components that allow for simple use if desired and expert use when needed. In both spaces, the Creative Team made sure that it could be as easy as flipping a switch to get the sound systems up and running. No waiting. No confusion. 

Thank you for investing in these gathering spaces! It’s because of Covenant Partners like you that we get to appreciate better sound quality as we gather for special events like worship services and choir practices, funerals and weddings. No one wants to struggle to hear, and now hopefully no one will have to.. 

We want to also give a BIG thank you to the leadership at First Pres who made these projects happen—Charles Bell, Chief Operating Officer; Thomas Blankenship, Lead Audio Tech; Hector Navas, Broadcast Director; Christina McDaniel, Sr. Director, Communications; Ben Gardner, Technical Producer; and the entire Creative Team.