Sound Decisions provided Danley loudspeakers and subwoofers for One Lord Sunday, an annual event staged at the Wasilla, Alaska Multi-Use Sports Complex that brings 4,000 congregants from 20 churches and dignitaries including the governor of Alaska together for a mixed-style worship service.
Sound Decisions' Phil Ballard built the temporary sound system that also featured Danley's recently-introduced amplifiers and DSPs, including two of Danley's SM-60 F molded horn loudspeakers for sidefill.
The main house system used four of Danley's SH-50 loudspeakers, two to a side flown six feet below the 31-foot ceiling, along with four Danley TH-115 and two Danley TH-212 subwoofers. Two Danley SH-95s (smaller versions of the SH-50) delivered frontfill and downfill.
One Lord Sunday"The SM-60 Fs were remarkably transparent," said Ballard, of the loudspeakers that bring some of Danley's SH-50 design features to a more aggressive price point. "For a 50-pound box, it delivers sound with surprising ‘largeness' and volume," Ballard added.
The event also put recently-introduced Danley amplifiers and DSPs through their paces. Five Danley DSLA 6.5k amps each delivered two channels at 2,200-watts (@ 4-ohms) to power the main SH-50s and subwoofers. Stewart power amps delivered the lower power requirements of the front-, down-, and side-fill speakers. Two Danley DSLP48 digital processors were also used. Audix microphones with Joe Meek compression provided the front-end.
"The Danley amps and processing gave the system a seamless and wonderfully-transparent sound that was remarkably easy to set up," said Ballard. "My partner was able to walk the floor with an Apple laptop. We used a wireless Apple hub with a $29 switcher to flip between the two DSP units. Although we were ready to tackle anything, the transparent Danley loudspeakers didn't need much. We pulled out 4 dB at 200 Hz and 2 dB at 300 Hz and that was it. The room didn't like those frequencies, and once we removed them, everything tightened up considerably. Start to finish, system tuning took all of 10 minutes."
A temporary football field was in place during set-up, and the absorption provided by the turf served as a substitute for the absorption of the people that would fill the room on Sunday. At the FOH position, Ballard adjusted overall system volume on the big day to rise slightly above the volume of the congregants singing along.
"We were measuring 102 dB," he said. "That seems loud, but we had to overcome the largeness of the room. It felt very natural, given the fidelity of the Danley loudspeakers. Because their beamwidth is so tight, even at very low frequencies, I was able to focus all of the energy on people. By keeping it off the concrete walls and metal ceiling, we reduced the reverb time from five seconds in previous years with line arrays to just two seconds.
"Apart from my own satisfaction," Ballard continued, "I received a lot of compliments on the sound this year. That's saying something, as the worship styles of these 20 churches are far-ranging. Some crank serious SPL with heavy drums and contemporary music, whereas others go a cappella with no sound system at all. The pastors all had great reviews and, more importantly, everyone in attendance was focused completely on the music and the message – not on trying to hear that music and that message!"
