3Ci’s Impressive New Church – Turnkey Solution to Excellent Acoustics

3Ci’s Impressive New Church Build.

Creating a truly special place for praise and worship had long been the dream of the passionate team at Capital City Church International (3Ci) based in Pretoria, South Africa.  This dream became a reality in 2020/21.

From the inception, the design team instinctively knew that acoustics played a huge role in the comfort, enjoyment and communication quality for their congregation.  The church auditorium and multi purpose hall is ultimately the transmission path between speaker and listener.

One of their first appointments, whilst still in the conceptual stage was Acoustic Worx.  Our consulting role encompassed the following,

Architectural Acoustics

Our CATT 3D acoustic modelling software assisted in optimising the building envelope and to derive possible solutions for acoustic treatment whilst still in the design stage.  With the use of digital binaural auralisation, we were able to listen – with headphones – to the space with various sources such as speech and music at any seating position,  before a single brick was laid.

Noise Control

A noise study was undertaken to meet councils requirements in terms of legislation around noise disturbance.   The acoustic design of the envelope, roof / walls / doors / glazing etc, ensured activities within the auditorium would not impact on residential properties in the local area.   Mechanical ventilation was specified to meet the ambient background noise levels as specified in SANS10103:2008 Table 1.

Acoustic Product

The acoustic control products to the interior were specifically designed based on the information derived from our acoustic model.  By having complete control of the manufacturing process, we are able to fine tune acoustic parameters beyond  “off the shelf” products.

Audio

State-of-the-art d&b line array speakers by Stage Audio Works ensured uniformity of coverage, uniformity of sound pressure level and exceptional bandwidth to all 2500 seats in the auditorium. Acoustic measurements of Speech Transmission Index at the rear seats averaged 0.98 which is exceptional.  It’s the same at each and every seat!

Equally important, the Multi Purpose Hall, which required reverberation control to ensure good speech intelligibility.  One of the key acoustic elements is the feature wall.  Working closely with the creative team, a design based on city skylines was derived which included maximum acoustic control.  The skylines represents cities where new churches are planted.  This bespoke design was engineered, manufactured and installed by Acoustic Worx

Together we created truly worthy spaces for the incredible people and the amazing work they do at 3Ci.