St. Ambrose Cathedral had a reverberation time of 6.2 seconds. The congregation had learned to cope.

Hymns were sung at half speed because the previous line was still bouncing around the nave when the next one started. The pastor's sermons were delivered in short, deliberate phrases with theatrical pauses — not for dramatic effect, but because speaking continuously created an unintelligible wall of overlapping echoes.

The real problem emerged during the building fund announcement: 'We need...' (wait) '...twelve thousand...' (wait) '...dollars for...' (wait) '...the new roof.' By the time the sentence assembled itself in the congregation's collective consciousness, half the attendees thought they needed twelve thousand dollars for a new rook (whatever that was), and the other half heard 'we need twelve thousand dollars for a new Ruth,' which raised uncomfortable questions.

The Moral: An RT60 measurement with SonaVyx would have quantified the problem in 30 seconds. With a 6.2s RT60, the STI was calculated at 0.22 — rated 'Bad' per IEC 60268-16. Acoustic treatment recommendations from the AI diagnostic engine could reduce RT60 to a manageable 1.8s.