Ask the Expert – We’re thinking of hiring a sound operator for our church

At our live Ask the Expert session Mark Gillham asked

“A good responsible volunteer sound operator is hard to find. I am considering hiring someone for that position. If I need them for rehearsal as well as two services on Sunday, what would be a pay rate for that position?”

Andy Chamberlain, Musicademy:

Before we get into pay rates – I think hiring someone really depends on your church local culture and of course financial situation. Here in the UK its not that common to hired a paid sound tech staff person but its very common in the States….

Geoff Boswell, Audioplan:

Look at the heart first and then the people skills. These cannot be learned as easily as sound skills. Are they musical? etc etc

Andy Chamberlain, Musicademy:

Here in the UK I know a couple of churches in London that actually pay a PA person £100-£150 GBP per Sunday. Mostly these are people from the congregation that really do know what they are doing and have been or could be hired elsewhere for their sound tech services. The reason for paying is that it ends up a very long day – start at 8am for the morning service and finish at 10pm once the evening service is finished. Of course there is a 4 hour long break in the middle of the day between services but it still ends up being a full 8 hours work for someone. Therefore the church feels it honours and respects the sound techs time…

But this isn’t a blue print… it does depend on your situation.

Tim Horton , SFL:

Yes I’m aware of Churches who do that too… I’m honestly not sure what they get for it though. Certainly we could expect to pay one of our freelance engineers £150-£250 for a day.

Geoff Boswell, Audioplan:

If you need to hire and you find the right person £200 for a full on Sunday ? Seems reasonable – Thats the sort of rate for a decent sound tech in the UK

Tim Horton , SFL:

 

Regarding training up your volunteers, I’m all for equipping a Church with people skills not just techie kit.

Marie Page, Musicademy:

 

Tim works for SFL – their training courses are detailed here:

And Geoff runs training as an independent engineer.

Likewise Musicademy can put training together on PA as well as other aspects of musicianship.

Musicademy published (a now somewhat dated) free guide to church sound which I know others have benefited from using. You can find it here https://www.musicademy.com/what-you-need-to-run-church-sound-free-survival-guide-handbook/