We're back with another edition of our popular Buyer's Guide, which features our biggest compilation of companies and categories to date.

This year's Buyer's Guide includes more than 1,000 companies and more than 150 categories, all organized to provide the ultimate comprehensive resource for the product and service needs of your worship facility.

Our biggest category, by far, is Sound, which includes acoustics, microphones, mixers, amplifiers and speakers, among others. This is no big surprise, given the attention that audio gets in churches across the country. It's simple…poor sound equals poor delivery of the music and the message. It is truly a critical component of a church service. We know that churches are continually looking for the best audio solutions, and companies continue to develop church-specific products that are high in quality and performance, while also tailored to meet the varying budgets of houses of worship.

It is important, though, that your church not only finds the correct audio solution for your particular sanctuary but that you implement it correctly, too. (Make sure you look in our Consultants & Services category for help in this area!) According to InfoComm International, a leading non-profit association serving the professional AV communications industry worldwide, "Audiovisual technologies facilitate and enhance the ability to reach out to the congregation and the community, yet it is vital that their adaptation to your worship environment be expertly conducted through proper and appropriate system design."

The organization's advice to churches: "Whether your need is to construct a new church or renovate an existing one, bring in the AV designer or integrator early in the process to understand the unique needs of a comfortable, easy-to-use AV systems environment."

In addition to the Buyer's Guide, you'll also notice that we're debuting a new look within this issue. The re-design of our columns is intended to make this magazine a more user-friendly resource for you, as you seek out articles of particular interest to you and your church. 

As always, I'm interested in hearing from you. You can reach me at jill@rpnmag.com.

God Bless,

Jill Pinheiro
Managing Editor