Greenwood and Moore (G&M) has had the privilege of partnering with Redwood Chapel to assist in their expansion and growth for over 10 years working on several interesting projects. 

However, the Church’s recent upgrade to the sanctuary’s audio system stands out as a particularly interesting and rewarding technical challenge.

This project required the attachment of a significant amount of heavy audio equipment to the sanctuary’s roof necessitating the need for much structural support and bracing. 

The challenge was to minimize the visual impact of the supports so as not to detract from the beauty of the sanctuary’s vaulted ceilings and to keep the Church’s interior ambiance intact.

New Audio: You might think that installing a new audio system would be straight forward, and it usually is! However, this project was unique as the roof beams were 30’ to 40’ above the sanctuary floor!

Given the tall ceilings, an elaborate and sophisticated custom scaffolding system was required to be installed before any work could begin; thereby allowing the contractors to access the roof areas easily and safely.

A key element of this project was the installation of a new steel “audio truss” which supports several high-performance speaker assemblies that are crucial for the sanctuary’s new acoustics. Supporting the audio truss required analysis of many of the existing roof framing beams to ensure that they would support the new truss’s 3,000 lb. weight! 

Some of the existing roof beams were adequate to support the new speaker loads; however, eight of those beams had to be strengthened to support the new loads.

When strengthening existing beams, it was necessary to minimize the visual impact of the structural upgrades. We wanted the framing to be “invisible” so as not to detract from the unique architectural roof design.

Balancing the structural needs with the aesthetic beauty was crucial to maintaining the chapel's historical design while upgrading the audio.