When the time came to design its new worship facility, church management for White Oak Worship Center (formerly known as Full Gospel Fellowship Church of Danville, VA) knew that a well-implemented audio-visual system could do wonders toward making services more relevant.
By closely coordinating the architectural process with a seasoned AV integrator, their new sanctuary is home to a new $300,000 audio-visual system that incorporates multiple large screen displays, a sophisticated camera implementation and post production suite to edit services for broadcast and online streaming.
The new sound reinforcement system from Greensboro, NC-based WorxAudio Technologies also plays a key role.
Not an Afterthought
Burlington NC-based Boone Audio Inc., a design/build firm specializing in AV integration for the house of worship, education, and corporate markets, was contracted to design and implement White Oak Worship Center's new system. Paul Boone, president/CEO, discussed the nature of the installation and the challenges it presented.
"White Oak Worship Center's sanctuary is 105 feet wide by 96 feet long in a quarter-round configuration with a seating capacity for approximately 850 people" Boone explains. "The stage/pulpit area features a uniquely designed area for the choir that is located over the orchestra pit. In addition to the main floor that slopes up toward the back of the room, there is a balcony at the rear of the sanctuary that houses the FOH (front of house) mix position, which is equipped with a 64-In / 32-Out Allen & Heath iLive-T112 digital live audio mixing console.
Music is Key
"White Oak Worship Center's services are very contemporary in nature," Boone adds. "Music plays a prominent role, and church management made it very clear that, in addition to displays for visually reinforcing the message and aiding the congregation with lyrics, they wanted a top-notch sound system that delivered first-rate speech intelligibility while also being capable of handling high SPL music reproduction. Their worship services are very upbeat. The church uses a good-sized praise band to augment the worship leader and eight backing vocalists, and they also have a full choir of roughly 40 voices."
To meet these requirements, Hugh Sarvis, WorxAudio's CEO and director of engineering, penned a sound reinforcement system that provides for a center cluster consisting of six WorxAudio TrueLine V8i-P two-way powered, high efficiency, compact line array loudspeakers flown at a height of 24 feet over the front of the pulpit/stage area. Suspended by WorxAudio's TrueAim Grid, which utilizes a single, industry-standard schedule 40 pipe, the cluster blends in with its surroundings.
Two WorxAudio V5M-P powered enclosures are used for congregational frontfill along the left and right edges of the stage. A seventh TrueLine V8i-P is mounted to the rear of the TrueAim Grid. Unlike the six enclosures facing into the sanctuary, this loudspeaker serves as a monitor for the choir and is visually hidden from the congregation.
Submerged Subs
Low frequency support is provided by two WorxAudio TrueLine TL218SS-P subwoofers plus a single TL118SS-PMD2 subwoofer. All three enclosures are housed in specially designed, recessed cubicles under the front edge of the stage. With the two TL218SS-P subwoofers positioned at the left and right edges of the stage and the TL118SS-PMD2 enclosure in the center, these subwoofers provide plenty of low end punch and smooth bass response throughout the room while effectively remaining out of sight. All PA enclosures are managed by an Ashly Protea 4.8SP 4 Input / 8 Output Digital system controller, which handles room EQ and time alignments.
Monitor provisions include a combination of WorxAudio 8M two-way, high efficiency, passive loudspeakers and Aviom A-16II in-ear personal mixing systems, which are used by the front line vocalists and all musicians. Mike Klauss, lead sound engineer for White Oak Worship Center, notes that these personal monitor systems have been a boon for everyone involved. "We're running about 14 Aviom units," Klauss reports. "These systems do a tremendous job of minimizing stage volume, which helps clean up the sound at FOH."
All handheld microphones-both wired and wireless-use Audix OM6 elements. "We wanted to ensure the best possible consistency of sound regardless of which microphone is being used," Klauss notes. "Other microphones include a Countryman E6 earset mic for Pastor Roger Ewing while the choir is picked up by Audix MicroBoom microphones."
Post-Production Remixes
To support its TV broadcast and Internet streaming endeavors, White Oak Worship Center has a dedicated post production suite where all audio and video is processed. To ensure the best possible sound quality, the church records to a Tascam X-48 48-track hard disk workstation. This workstation takes a combination of analog and optical digital feeds as direct outputs from the Allen & Heath MixRack-the mix engine for the FOH console. "The Tascam X-48 enables us to remix the audio separately," says Klauss, "before it is sync'd with video during post production."
"The fact that we planned the sanctuary's AV facilities at an early stage paid huge dividends on this project," Klauss adds. "We began planning for all this as far back as January of 2009 when the building's architectural blueprints and CAD drawings were being finalized. By being involved early on, we were able to arrange for the subwoofer cubicles and numerous other aspects of this project that, ultimately, made it a world-class installation. Hugh Sarvis was a tremendous help-not only in the design of the sound system, but in its final tuning as well."
With the new AV system in place and operational, Klauss reports a positive reaction from that everyone – from Pastor Roger Ewing and the praise team to the congregation. "The church wanted the sound to be clear, comfortable, and distinct and that's exactly what we achieved," he says. "We continue to receive compliments for every aspect of the entire audio-visual system. Several pastors from various area churches have visited White Oak Worship Center to experience the system and have been very impressed. In my mind, that's the best compliment of all."
