A Look at Some Recent Audio Upgrades
Most sectors of the live event industry have been hit hard by the pandemic, yet there has been steady activity on the installation front, particularly in the house of worship market, as religious organizations prepare for the return of the faithful. With that in mind, we decided to check out some recent installation projects.
Bellevue Baptist Church, Memphis, TN
As part of a complete audio system renovation, Springfield, MO-based integrator Paragon 360 installed three DiGiCo Quantum7 consoles (FOH/monitors/broadcast) and an SD12 (fellowship hall) for the largest house of worship in Memphis.
One key goal was to accommodate Bellevue’s wide variety of worship music styles, ranging from a contemporary rhythm section with a small group of vocalists to a 50-piece orchestra with a 300-member choir and a 12- to 16-member praise team.
“The church required a mixing system with a high channel count, and DiGiCo was one of the few that could mix 256 inputs and offer 128 outputs, all running at 96k,” says Paragon 360’s Mark Coble. Another plus was the redundancy of the Quantum7’s dual processing engines, and the fact that the entire system runs at 96 kHz and easily imports to Pro Tools in the broadcast control room.
In the main worship center, two SD-Racks loaded with 32-bit mic preamps and custom distribution are located onstage. Offstage, two more SD-Racks handle inputs from all the floor pockets, while an SD-MiNi rack is at FOH. “Another two SD-Racks are in the broadcast suite for capturing local sources and distributing signals via analog and AES,” Coble explains.
A BroaMan Optocore AutoRouter manages all the SD-Racks via fiber optics and allows the entire campus to be interconnected. Two DiGiGrid MGR units support 128 channels of recording/playback for virtual sound check at FOH and monitors. And a DiGiCo Orange Box acts as an on/off ramp for Dante within the system to support the church’s Shure Axient wireless mics and any other Dante devices on the network.
Asked about the church’s reaction to its audio infrastructure remake, Bellevue’s technical director Caleb New says, “It can handle anything we’ve thrown at it and it sounds great. Both our musicians and members of our congregation were able to tell a positive difference from week one on the new consoles. Mixing on these consoles is a dream.”
Bellevue Baptist Church
- Capacity: 6,800
- Key Components: DiGiCo Quantum7 consoles
- Integrator: Paragon 360
Mosaic Church, Henderson, NV
With 23 locations across the country, CCS Presentation Systems is a leading supplier of audio/video products. The company’s Las Vegas office recently installed a d&b audiotechnik A-Series augmented array for Mosaic Church in nearby Henderson, NV.
Mosaic Church is a contemporary house of worship with high-energy live music, video and theatrical lighting elements. “We were fortunate to have a clean canvas to work with. The sanctuary is in great shape and already had acoustical treatments,” says Gilbert Medina of CCS. “The A-Series fit our performance and budget requirements, and the church was aware of the d&b brand, so when I made the A-Series recommendation, they approved our design.”
The d&b system includes six AL90 loudspeakers (3/side, stereo), four center ceiling mounted Yi-SUBS (stereo-summed) and two 30D amplifiers. The system was commissioned by d&b support specialist, Mark Rush.
The A-Series addresses the needs of many medium-size spaces where point-source loudspeakers may not provide adequate coverage or SPL, and line array solutions exceed budgets or impede sightlines. The ability to set variable splay angles and be hung as a vertical or horizontal array make A-Series quite adaptable to a wide range of spaces.
“The d&b A-Series is the perfect fit for our venue,” states worship pastor John Solomon. “Transparent warm and clear are words we’ve used to describe the sound and we are eager to further expand our system as we grow.”
Mosaic Church
- Capacity: 1,100
- Key Components: d&b audiotechnik A-Series
- Integrator: CCS Presentation Systems
Cornerstone Chapel, Leesburg, VA
To ease its transition to IP networking, the 2,200-seat Cornerstone Chapel installed a 32-fader Lawo mc²56 audio production console for FOH duties, augmented by a Lawo A__UHD Core providing 512 DSP channels.
Based on RAVENNA / AES67 IP technology, new Lawo console handles both FOH and broadcast tasks.
Also part of the system are two Lawo Compact I/O stageboxes, a Lawo Nova73 router capable of routing 8092 x 8092 mono channels and Dante integration to feed the facility’s Yamaha CL5 monitor console and other Dante gear. The mc²56 also includes Waves Super Rack integration and smart GPIO settings to change the DSP presets of the BSS audio processor.
An ultra-high density IP DSP engine, Lawo’s network-based A__UHD Core software-defined audio DSP engine utilizes the IP network as an extension of the console core’s backplane, and can be located anywhere on the network.
“This Lawo solution provides Cornerstone with features that will cover our FOH needs for the foreseeable future, as well as providing expandability for future projects,” says Cornerstone’s audio director, Joey Burdette. “And as the A__UHD Core can be a pooled resource for up to four consoles, we can easily expand our capabilities just by adding additional surfaces and stageboxes around the campus. Connecting everything with an IP network makes growing the system very easy.”
Burdette added that “The flexibility, workflow, reliability, and expandability of our mc²56 are things no other console offers. Our operators love how user-friendly it is and how fast it is to work on; the console adapts to their workflows instead of the other way around.”
Cornerstone already has plans for expanding its new Lawo IP system. “We’re already looking to add more Lawo audio consoles and video infrastructure products to our facilities.”
Cornerstone Chapel
- Capacity: 2,200
- Key Components: Lawo mc²56 console, Lawo A__UHD Core
- Integrator: Lawo/in-house
Faith Family Church, Baytown, TX
Since 2013, Faith Family Church in Baytown, TX has continued to grow, now occupying a new 1,400-seat sanctuary. Handling the AVL integration was by Ellis Pro Media. “We knew that Electro-Voice would be a great solution, especially paired with the new Dynacord IPX series amplifiers,” says Ellis Pro’s Austin Hess.
The sanctuary’s main system consists of twin X2 line arrays; six with a 90° horizontal dispersion above two 120° models. Two EVF-1122D/126 speakers provide front fill and three horn-loaded EVH-1152/96 are used as rear delay fills. Eight X12-128 dual-18” subs provide LF support. Hess considers the X12-128 a secret weapon behind the system’s effortless LF fidelity. “These give you everything you want in terms of output and tonality, with such a small footprint,” adds Hess. “They maintain musicality at high output, and perform as well — if not better than — any other premium sub on the market.” Four powered EKX-12Ps are available for stage monitor use.
Five Dynacord IPX20:4 amps power the mains and subs; a single IPX10:8 drives the fills. The amps are configured as a centralized Dante/OCA audio/control network, and operated by SONICUE sound system software. “This is the first X2 rig we’ve deployed using SONICUE for processing,” says Hess. “It allowed us to be up and running more efficiently than in the past, and both our team and the client appreciated that.”
EV speakers and Dynacord IPX amps were also selected for the children’s and pre-school auditoriums, a multipurpose room and several classrooms.
With CDC distancing guidelines in place, the church held its first live-attendance services since closing due to COVID-19, and the new system delivered. “They are grateful to be getting back to live worship in the new sanctuary,” says Hess. “I’d almost forgotten how great the X-Line Advance system sounds — it was an amazing experience.”
Faith Family Church
- Capacity: 1,400
- Key Components: E-V X-Line Advance X2-212 line arrays
- Integrator: Ellis Pro Media
Hope Church, Danville, VA
Every church installation has its own challenges and designing a system for the 400-seat Hope Church was no exception, says Daniel Gourley, owner of Phoenix-based integrator 5 Words Media. “Hope Church needed a compact system with a powerful output. The church’s ceiling was only 18 feet high and had to carry the weight of both the Coda Audio N-APS top boxes and the subs. Built in the 1970s, the church wasn’t designed to carry heavy flown loads, but the Coda speakers are so light, that wasn’t a problem. I’ve always been amazed at how much sound comes out of such a small box.”
The system was loaded into the System Optimizer, which uses Coda’s predictive software, and selected two HOPS8i boxes as sidefills for the alcove spaces on each side of the stage. But the main challenge was the room itself, due to its 18 feet elevation dropping to nine feet at the side areas. “The DSP in the Coda LINUS10C amplifiers allowed us to delay and EQ the main P.A. from the sidefills to avoid any comb filtering and phasing in the seating area,” Gourley adds. “Once installed, we ended up with a system capable of 106dB at ±1.9 dB of broadband audio.”
Designed for small-to medium spaces, the N-APS system combines the versatility of a point-source with the arrayability of a line array, a combination of power and flexibility. And with 400 seats, Hope Church proved the perfect setting for the system’s proven power and coverage.
“When they first switched on the Coda system, we were stunned by the power and clarity — I was blown away,” says the church’s tech leader Jonathan Wright. “You go to the farthest corners of the room and there’s no difference in output or quality. It was so much better than I’d ever experienced.”
Hope Church
- Capacity: 400
- Key Components: Coda Audio N-APS
- Integrator: 5 Words Media
