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Each weekend thousands of schools, stores, and theaters are temporarily transformed into worship centers. Though they lack brick and mortar of their own, these portable churches have a sound spiritual foundation. A significant portion of any portable church's budget must go toward audio systems for the main service, children's service, and youth groups.

Unlike a permanent system, portable equipment must withstand the rigors of load-in and load-out, and be capable of operating in less than ideal acoustic environments. To help you select just the right system for your environment, we've assembled suggestions for small, medium, and large rooms with an eye toward reliability and simplicity of operation.

Regardless of venue size, the successful application of a portable sound system involves satisfying three key requirements. First and foremost, the system must provide consistent coverage across the room for both the spoken word and full-range music. Second, the components must be rugged enough to take environmental extremes in temperature and humidity common to trailer-stored situations. Finally, the entire system must be easy to assemble each week and simple enough for a volunteer to operate.

Generally speaking, a room with complex angles and non-parallel surfaces will perform better acoustically than one with simple angles and parallel boundaries. Therefore, a "good sounding" room requires less sound equipment than a "poor sounding" room. If the room's natural response is dense and diffuse (free of sonically destructive, discreet echoes), then system requirements drop dramatically. However, when an un-amplified voice is difficult to understand from several feet away, a costly system will be needed to achieve the pattern control and defined dispersion necessary to make speech intelligible.

In a small room with good acoustics, a pre-packaged system is a logical choice. Single box solutions, such as the AmpliVox SW905 or Anchor Audio Liberty Series can deliver high quality sound when only a few mics and a CD player are needed. The Liberty, for example, includes a limiter on the output to prevent distortion and also integrates a solid CD player into the rear of the unit for cable-less use. The AmpliVox SW905 boasts a CD player and a pitch-variable cassette deck. Wireless mic receivers are built in to both units and can be complemented with a lapel or headset element. If the need arises for outdoor use, the Liberty and the SW905 can be operated from internal rechargeable battery packs.

Small rooms with broader coverage requirements can be covered with one of the newer break-apart systems. Fender's Passport P250 system sports four mic inputs and two stereo connections for use in a modest worship environment. The two speakers unsnap from the base unit and can be separated up to forty feet. The similar Escort system from Peavey adds a stand for the base unit and storage for four mics and a portable CD player in the main housing.

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