La Fe en Jesucristo Church Embraces the Music
With an energetic congregation and 10-piece band, the La Fe en Jesucristo Church attracts international attention. Despite its location in a small Hispanic neighborhood of Kansas City, Kan., well-known Hispanic Christian bands regularly visit the church to perform during worship services. When the church moved into a larger facility (the church consolidated its worship facility from a previous two locations to one), Church Trustee Noe Aguilar wanted a state-of-the-art sound system to accommodate the array of culturally diverse music, which includes everything from heavy metal and rock to soulful tenors and traditional hymns. “We didn’t have the space and we didn’t have the sound system,” says Aguilar. “We had to rent auditorium space and equipment to accommodate the different styles of music. This time around, we wanted a concert-friendly church.”
When looking for an installer, Aguilar says aside from the expense and history of professional work, he was looking for a company that offered its knowledge during the initial assessment. Some companies made suggestions regarding basic speaker placement for improved sound, but MSM Systems Inc., of Lawrence, Kan., conducted a thorough evaluation of the situation. “They came in and said, ‘If you hang speakers at this point of the ceiling, you’re putting people in danger because the ceiling could potentially collapse’,” Aguilar says. Because of the building’s architecture (circa 1950), the existing ceiling beams could not hold the weight of the line arrays. He brought in an engineer for a second opinion, who confirmed what MSM Systems had predicted.
The company was awarded the contract, and had just one month — from receipt of the contract to first day of service — to install the sound system. “That was a big challenge, not only for our company, but we were also appreciative of NEXO and Yamaha to get us the equipment in a timely fashion,” says MSM Systems President Kent Clasen, adding that he is used to working under a timeframe of at least eight weeks from contract to completion. The crew consisted of Technical Director Eddie Winslow, Installation Technician Kirk Hutson and Clasen, who designed the sound system.
The heart of the system consists of a Yamaha LS9-32 digital audio console, Yamaha T4N amp, two Yamaha PC9501N amps and a NEXO GEO S line array system that includes two NEXO ALS2-CF 2 by 18-inch subwoofers, 14 NEXO GEO S805 eight-inch two-way, five-degree vertical line array loudspeakers and two NEXO GEO S830 eight-inch, two-way, 30-degree vertical line array loudspeakers. “It’s a very high-energy congregation that really embraces the music in their worship,” Clasen says. “We wanted the church to have a high-quality stereo system. We were familiar with the GEO S system from NEXO, so that was one of our first choices.”
MSM Systems worked with Structural Engineer Eddie Winslow to install 16-foot I-Beams across the ceiling to support the left/right NEXO GEO S805 eight-inch vertical line arrays. Aguilar says he was surprised at the compact size of the speakers, and was initially worried that they wouldn’t be enough to cover the entire sanctuary, which holds about 1,000 people.
“I didn’t know the dimensions of the speakers, but I pictured them bigger when they brought them in. They were so small compared to the ones we had before. Ours were like boat anchors,” Aguilar says with a laugh. Clasen assured Aguilar that he would be surprised — the speakers would be more than enough to deliver accurate, quality sound that would impress not only those in attendance, but also the bands.
The biggest challenge, however, was placement of the NEXO S2 2 by 18-inch subwoofers because installers didn’t have the capacity to add them in a flown configuration. “We settled on the S2s — they didn’t have to be flown, and we had a little bit of floor space. Two of them really filled the room with strong bass during the opening service. We had to put a high-pass filter on the bass guitar channel to keep it from shaking the balcony where a projector is mounted.”
Floor placement of the NEXO S2 subwoofers also made sense from a visual standpoint, reducing the look of bulky audio equipment. “Hanging the subwoofers would have added a lot of speakers to be seen, so putting them down on the ground allowed us to eliminate that visual problem,” Clasen comments. Aguilar says he initially thought the subwoofers on the floor would be too loud for people sitting in the first few aisles, but, thus far, he has only received positive feedback.
MSM Systems also installed a Yamaha LS9-32 digital audio console to replace the church’s large-format analog mixing board. The console’s on-board effects and compact size helped reduce front-of-house equipment size by half. “Getting rid of the racks and large analog console is a big plus for them; they didn’t have to eliminate any seats around front of house,” Clasen says. Since a majority of performers use personal monitors, the console’s presets allow each individual musician to recall their own settings. This is a benefit for the church as well because it helps maintain low stage volume, Clasen noted.
During the first day of service, Clasen showed Aguilar the Yamaha LS9’s ability to be run via a laptop. “He’s like, ‘Check this out, see the mixer over there…’” He had his laptop, and with the click of the mouse, he turned the volume down. It’s not that expensive — all I need is to buy a router because the mixer comes with software. In the future, we’ll still need the sound booth for CDs and live recordings, but we can reduce the mixer to a laptop.” Aguilar says this option gives the church invisible control, as a volunteer sitting in the back of the sanctuary could literally run the entire sound system.
The church recently held a concert that brought together youth groups from local Hispanic churches. Since most of the bands were teenagers, the style of music was more youthful — and loud — with bands performing hard rock, punk and heavy metal. Although the styles of music were different than the church was accustomed to, the sound system wowed the bands. “The bands absolutely loved the sound. Even though it was loud, the sound didn’t bother people’s ears. The sound system was able to hold up,” Aguilar says. {mosimage}
When Aguilar contacted the band Zona 7, who was to perform at an upcoming event, he says the band was shocked to learn the church had such an impressive sound system, and commented on the seven NEXO GEO S805s on each side of the sanctuary. “They were like ‘no way!’ — they couldn’t wait to hear the sound. They were surprised that a church had them, I guess because they’re more expensive, but we knew with all these events that we would save money in the long run. We would spend so much money renting equipment and auditoriums. We wanted to make it easier on us.” The La Fe en Jesucristo Church is one of the largest Hispanic churches in the area, and its new system is quickly becoming a model for other local houses of worship. “Several churches have called us asking what speakers and mixers we are using,” Aguilar comments.
The church has a group of volunteers that work the system, and prior to the first service, Clasen conducted training sessions with them on how to use the digital console. He also attended the first service to ensure everything performed up to par. “MSM did a one-on-one training session with me; we recorded it to be used as a training manual for techs,” Aguilar says. “I worried that digital would be so different, and it would take (the volunteers) a while to learn it, but they picked it up the first time.”
An unforeseen challenge for Clasen was tuning a system for a Spanish-speaking worship service. “It was unusual to tune a system for a language that I am not fluent in. It helps that the NEXO system has a very linear response, so not much tweaking was needed during the actual service,” he says. The first day of service was a success with the audience and bands alike providing positive feedback. The system made sense for both the budget and the space with coverage “amazing from the front row to the balcony,” Clasen comments.
The La Fe en Jesucristo Church is located in a lower-income community, so the high quality sound system is pretty rare, admits Clasen. “They were stretching their budget to get to this level because it was very important to them, which was evident at the first service. The way the congregation responds to the band and the music was just incredible.”
CREW
Sound System Contractor: MSM Systems Inc.
Design/Commissioning: Kent Clasen
Technical Director: Eddie Winslow
Installation Technician: Kirk Hutson
GEAR
2 NEXO ALS2-CF Subwoofer 2 x 18” carpet finish
2 NEXO GEO S bumper hardware for flying GEO S
14 NEXO GEO S805 eight-inch two-way, five-degree vertical line array loudspeaker
2 NEXO GEO S830 eight-inch, two-way, 30-degree vertical line array loudspeakers
1 NEXO NX242 2 x 4 digital loudspeaker controller
2 MSM custom rigging
1 32 x 8 snake
2 Sub snake eight-channel fan to box
1 drive snake
1 speaker wire 4 COND 13 AWG
1 speaker wire 2 COND 12 AWG
1 Shure DFR22 digital processor
1 Yamaha LS9-32 digital mixing console
2 Yamaha PC9501N amplifiers
1 Yamaha T4N amplifiers
1 12-space FOH rack
1 Lowell amplifier rack
1 Lowell A/C sequencing system
