An Oregon house of worship upgrades its audio with digital advances and state-of-the-art sound equipment.
A few days after workers finished the new sanctuary and massive thrust stage of the First Baptist Church in Eugene, Ore. — with little re-hearsal time in the space, and less time for the technical staff to comprehend the full scope of their options — the Oregon Bach Festival or-chestra and choirs, under the baton of conductor Helmuth Rilling, took the stage to perform Bach’s Mass in B Minor to a packed house of 1,250 eager classical music fans.
At intermission, the audience ate bonbons and drank punch as they milled about the church’s large patio in the pleasantly sunny and warm early evening air. George Evano, spokesperson for the Bach Festival, was impressed. “The space is good,” he said, “and the stage access and facilities backstage — well, they did a really good job of envisioning the future.”
OBF artistic director Mike Anderson agrees. He said the musicians could hear each other, better than in the 2,500-seat Silva Hall at the city’s Hult Center or even at the University of Oregon’s lovely, intimate 540-seat Beall Hall. Also, he reported that the acoustics were crys-tal clear, and despite the high-ceilinged space, no reverb muddied the sound. The OBF has reserved the church for two more performances. “It’s an ideal-sized hall for classical music,” said Anderson.
First Baptist Church Music Pastor Steve Miracel expresses a similar sentiment. He loves choral music and was pleased to welcome the Bach Festival, even with the stressful pace of last-minute construction. “The sound is so clean in here,” he said, as he surveyed the space he helped design and push through to completion.
A Dream Fulfilled
Miracel is now living his dream: The FBC sold its space in downtown Eugene several years ago because the congregation outgrew the building. The church was homeless for a while, borrowing the worship space of other congregations its partial construction was complete on their 200-acre parcel of land on the northeast edge of Eugene. Still, the sanctuary wasn’t ready, so the choirs rehearsed and performed in church services held in the gymnasium of the new building. But now, Miracel says, “We absolutely love it!”
The church, which has approximately 2,000 official members, holds three services each Sunday morning in the space, and the Yamaha PM1D is preprogrammed differently for each service. First, in what Miracel calls a more traditional service, choral music fills the ears of about 550 worshippers. The second or “New Dimension” service, which has between 800 and 1,000 attending, is what Miracel describes as more contemporary, with gospel, light pop or Christian light-rock music. Finally, the 11:25 a.m. “Third Hour” service, with 650 or so wor-shippers, features more guitar-driven “top-40 Christian rock,” Miracel says.
The sound design can be adapted, and the seating on the main floor is flexible. During Christmas services, the sanctuary was filled with 1,275 people in the main congregation, with 140 more, including the 60-member choir, on the stage. The church also held a special holiday banquet in which 43 round tables seating 340 people were set up on the main floor. And when the church grows, there’s room behind the sanctuary to add approximately 500 more seats, though Miracel notes that the acoustics in back won’t be as strong.
The Sound Equipment
Of course, when the Bach Festival performed, the orchestra had no need for amplification; the soloists and musicians were comfortably capable of filling the room with sound. But some instruments, like electric guitars, drum sets and electric organs, and regular choirs and Christian schools that borrow the sanctuary for musical performances, need something to help them sound a little stronger. Because of a con-struction delay after the sanctuary opened, the church got lucky. In November 2006, it became the first church or house of worship in the world to integrate Dolby Lake Processors into its audio system.
Dolby Labs says that some of the new features in the processor include “a unique portal front-panel interface, advanced converter de-sign, Iso-Float ground isolation, LimiterMax true RMS-limiting and flexible hardware configuration options.” This means that the large First Baptist Church, which is smaller than the mega-churches in other areas of the country, has become a leader in sound equipment. “This is very progressive technology in terms of having the right amount of sound,” Miracel says.
Kyle Anderson, CEO of Eugene’s Anderson Group International, the company that performed most of the work on the church, notes that the processors handle a main speaker system containing 18 L-ACOUSTICS dV-DOSC boxes, subs and front fills — a list that makes the church’s technical staff extremely happy. Because of a four-zone stage-fill system made up of three L-ACOUSTICS 115XT HiQ and two 112XT speakers, Anderson says, “The church’s operators can walk around with the wireless tablet and make changes to optimize the stage space — they can sculpt the sound, in real time, from any position.”
The Rest
Miracel says that the sound equipment complements the video technology, with two rear-projection screens onstage and one located at the back of the hall, where performers can watch themselves. When the Pacific Gospel Association came to the First Baptist Church last fall, the technology staff brought real-time images up on the video screens so people sitting far away could see them without bin-oculars. And AGI’s Kelly Baum, an experienced lighting designer who has worked at the University of Oregon and at the city’s Hult Center, helped make the lighting technology more advanced than many of the church members might have thought necessary. “It’s minimal right now,” Miracel says, “because it’s for church services.” But the three catwalks allow for adjustments and “all sorts of dif-ferent lighting.”
The fly rail boasts an advanced cloud system from RPG Diffusor Systems Inc. of Maryland, and everything on the beautifully stained hardwood stage floor is portable. The choral shell is on rollers, while the risers, chairs and Hammond B3 organ all move out of the way when required, though, Miracel notes with a laugh, they haven’t had time to build a wagon for the drum set yet. Backstage there’s a guest lighting system for visiting performers, a 10-foot by 10-foot loading door and a greenroom that’s also used for choir rehearsals and vocal recitals.
The First Baptist Church is still working on the sanctuary, but Miracel is rightly pleased with the airy space and technical delights. The Bach Festival’s Mike Anderson says he loves “the clarity of the sound, the beauty of the space, the wood stage and the choir loft,” not to mention the parking and the patio. And he likes the futuristic technology: “It’s got everything you need as far as sound production goes.”
Steve Miracel wants more people to see what Anderson already knows. “I’m here to exalt the Lord,” Miracel says, “but I’m also here to say come out and see the space, check it out. It’s just so, so good.”
Suzi Steffen is the performing and visual arts editor for the Eugene Weekly in Eugene, Oregon.
