The congregation at Brisbane's St John's Cathedral have learned to turn their heads a certain way and stay away from "dead spots in individual seats", due to the building's "fascinating" acoustics and an outdated sound system.
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The gothic cathedral on Ann St in the CBD, completed in 2009 after the ground was broken more than 100 years ago, holds a number of weekday and weekend services and uses a PA system that Anglican dean, the Very Reverend Dr Peter Catt, said was in place since the building was shorter.
"One day it works that everyone hears or others will say they couldn't hear and they will have to move to another area," he said.
"The sound bounces around the building and creates dead spots in individual seats."
The cathedral has had a PA company visit the building. Workers told Dr Catt the church had one of the most complex acoustics of any building in Australia.
"It turns out we have the longest reverb time of any building in Australia," he said.
"We have a reverb time of about eight seconds, which means it is absolutely fantastic for choirs and music, but creates incredible challenges for delivering sound through the PA system.
"Some days it works brilliantly, other days it doesn't. It is affected by humidity and temperatures, but we are working on a solution."
Dr Catt said staff from the PA company were "fascinated" by the interference patterns they detected.
"One of the guys that came up to do the survey was intrigued, he was looking straight ahead and he could hear well but if he turned his head he couldn't hear the sound," he said.
"They thought it was a hoot, it just shows how complex the acoustics is."
The solution has been quoted to the tune of half a million dollars and the cathedral was looking for a second opinion before going ahead with any changes.
"The current quote we have to deal with is half a million dollars which is a challenge but it is certainly one of our high priorities because we need to be confident people will hear," he said.
"The plan is to have a system that will deliver sound to smaller areas, so we don't end up with sound bouncing around the building.
"We don't need it for the weekday services because they are smaller, but we need the PA system for a big Sunday service, for weddings, Easter, Christmas.
"We will have to work out a fundraising scheme, it is a huge amount of money but we realise that is what we have to do."
